Aspects of Quantum Gravity Phenomenology and Astrophysics

Quantum Gravity Phenomenology

I give a brief non-technical review of " Quantum Gravity Phenomenology " and in particular I describe some studies which should soon allow to establish valuable data-based constraints on the short-distance structure of spacetime. The " quantum-gravity problem " has been studied for more than 70 years, but we still do not have a single experimental result whose interpretation requires us to advo...

Phenomenology, Astrophysics and Cosmology of Theories with Sub-Millimeter Dimensions and TeV Scale Quantum Gravity

We recently proposed a solution to the hierarchy problem not relying on low-energy supersymmetry or technicolor. Instead, the problem is nullified by bringing quantum gravity down to the TeV scale. This is accomplished by the presence of n ≥ 2 new dimensions of sub-millimeter size, with the SM fields localised on a 3-brane in the higher dimensional space. In this paper we systematically study t...

Quantum Foam and Quantum Gravity Phenomenology

Quantum-gravity Phenomenology: Status and Prospects

Over the last few years part of the quantum-gravity community has adopted a more optimistic attitude toward the possibility of finding experimental contexts providing insight on non-classical properties of spacetime. I review those quantum-gravity phenomenology proposals which were instrumental in bringing about this change of attitude, and I discuss the prospects for the short-term future of q...

Quantum Gravity Phenomenology and Lorentz Violation

In most fields of physics it goes without saying that observation and prediction play a central role, but unfortunately quantum gravity (QG) has so far not fit that mold. Many intriguing and ingenious ideas have been explored, but it seems safe to say that without both observing phenomena that depend on QG, and extracting reliable predictions from candidate theories that can be compared with ob...