Lorentz invariance and quantum gravity: an additional fine-tuning problem?

2004/03/12 by John C. Collins, John Collins, Alejandro Perez +6 · 1 voice · 50 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Noncommutative and Quantum Gravity Theories #Quantum Mechanics and Applications #gr-qc #hep-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.93.191301

published as Phys.Rev.Lett.93:191301,2004 · 4 pages, 1 figure. V.4: Updates of references; slightly shortened to journal length limits for Phys. Rev. Lett

arxiv created 2004/10/30 · openalex publication_date 2004/11/05 · arxiv updated 2010/04/06 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

Trying to combine standard quantum field theories with gravity leads to a breakdown of the usual structure of space-time at around the Planck length, 1.6*10^-35 m, with possible violations of Lorentz invariance. Calculations of preferred-frame effects in quantum gravity have further motivated high precision searches for Lorentz violation. Here, we explain that combining known elementary particle interactions with a Planck-scale preferred frame gives rise to Lorentz violation at the percent level, some 20 orders of magnitude higher than earlier estimates, unless the bare parameters of the theory are unnaturally strongly fine-tuned. Therefore an important task is not just the improvement of the precision of searches for violations of Lorentz invariance, but also the search for theoretical mechanisms for automatically preserving Lorentz invariance.

Citations

• Relativity in space-times with short-distance structure governed by an observer-independent (Planckian) length scale

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Discussions

• The prior answer is misleading and drastically underestimates the constraints we have on a literal lattice UV completion of the universe. It is true that standard scenarios for physics Beyond the Stan [stackexchange, 9 points]

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