[SEMINARI] SEMINAR: Nick E. Mavromatos

[German Rodrigo Garcia]

Testing Quantum Gravity: from wishful thinking to excitement and then ...?

Nick E. Mavromatos
(King's College London)
Monday, 12 of June of 2006     12:00 PM
Theoretical Physics Seminars room

Abstract

This talk is meant to provoke some active discussion on the possibility of 
experimentally accessing signatures of quantum gravity. After reviewing 
current theoretical models and approaches to the (still eluding) theory of 
quantum gravity, I will try to describe various experimental tests, 
terrestrial, astrophysical and even cosmological, and discuss various 
sensitivities of current and immediate-future experimental facilities. In 
recent years the possibility of performing such tests (with sensitivity 
close to that expected by Quantum Gravity) in current and immediate-future 
experiments caused some excitement, especially in view of the fact that in 
certain approaches of quantum gravity CPT and/or Lorentz symmetries appear 
to be violated at high-energy (Planckian) scales, but with "effective'' 
signatures that could be visible at a much lower energy scale. In the talk 
I will discuss how certain one could be that such effective signatures 
really represent quantum gravity effects. I will claim that some effects 
of quantum gravity appear at present to be unique, but the sensitivity of 
the respective tests is still an open issue and is highly model dependent.