Gravitational quantum limit for length measurements

1994/02/01 by Marc-Thierry Jaekel, Serge Reynaud · 54 citations
Computer Science · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Geography #Gravitation #Limit (mathematics) #Mathematical analysis #Mathematics #Physics #Quantum #Quantum Electrodynamics and Casimir Effect #Quantum Information and Cryptography #Quantum Mechanics and Applications #Quantum limit #Quantum mechanics #Speed limit #gr-qc #quant-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/0375-9601(94)90838-9

published in Physics Letters A 185(2), 143-148 (Elsevier BV) · 6 pages

openalex publication_date 1994/02/01 · arxiv created 1998/01/30 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

We discuss a limit for sensitivity of length measurements which is due to the effect of vacuum fluctuations of gravitational field. This limit is associated with irreducible quantum fluctuations of geodesic distances and it is characterized by a noise spectrum with an order of magnitude mainly determined by Planck length. The gravitational vacuum fluctuations may (in an analysis restricted to questions of principle and when the measurement strategy is optimized) dominate fluctuations added by the measurement apparatus if macroscopic masses, i.e. masses larger than Planck mass, are used.

Citations

• Fluctuations and dissipation for a mirror in vacuum
• Differential calculus on compact matrix pseudogroups (quantum groups)
• Quantum limits in interferometric measurements
• Non-commutative differential geometry
• On the nature of quantum geometrodynamics

Cited by

• Events in a noncommutative space-time
• Three short distance structures from quantum algebras