2000/08/04 by Giovanni Amelino-Camelia, GIOVANNI AMELINO-CAMELIA · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Noncommutative and Quantum Gravity Theories #Quantum Electrodynamics and Casimir Effect #Relativity and Gravitational Theory #gr-qc
paper · pdf · doi:10.1142/s0218271801001128
published as Int.J.Mod.Phys. D10 (2001) 1-8 · Paper awarded an ``honorable mention'' in the Annual Competition of the Gravity Research Foundation for the year 2000 (LaTex, 7 pages, no figures)
arxiv created 2000/08/04 · openalex publication_date 2001/02/01 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
This author's recent proposal of interferometric tests of Planck-scale-related properties of spacetime is here revisited from a strictly phenomenological viewpoint. The results announced previously are rederived using elementary dimensional considerations. The dimensional analysis is then extended to the other two classes of experiments (observations of neutral kaons at particle accelerators and observations of the gamma rays we detect from distant astrophysical sources) which have been recently considered as opportunities to explore "foamy" properties of spacetime. The emerging picture suggests that there is an objective and intuitive way to connect the sensitivities of these three experiments with the Planck length. While in previous studies the emphasis was always on some quantum-gravity scenario and the analysis was always primarily aimed at showing that the chosen scenario would leave a trace in a certain class of doable experiments, the analysis here reported takes as starting point the experiments and, by relating in a direct quantitative way the sensitivities to the Planck length, provides a model-independent description of the status of Planck-length phenomenology.