This event is from the archives of The Notice Board. The event has already taken place and the information contained in this post may no longer be relevant or accurate.
The Department of Physics & Astronomy Presents:
Vasil Todorinov
Department of Physics & Astronomy
University of Lethbridge
Decays of rare isotopes: From the precision frontier to the limits of stability
Thursday April 4th, 2019
1:40 – 2:55 p.m. in D632.
Quantum gravity attempts to unify the two apparently incompatible theories of Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity. Theories of Quantum Gravity predict a minimum measurable length and a corresponding modification of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle to the so-called Generalized Uncertainty Principle (GUP). However, this modification is non-relativistic, making it unclear whether the minimum length is frame-independent, i.e. Lorentz invariant. We formulate a relativistic or Lorentz covariant version of GUP, resulting in a Lorentz invariant (or frame-independent) minimum measurable length. We show that this implies that spacetime coordinates are non-commutative and that spacetime itself is fuzzy at very small (Planck) scales.
We examine potential experimental signatures of this result and note that this is the first step in formulating quantum field theories with a minimum length.
Contact:
Catherine Drenth | catherine.drenth@uleth.ca | (403) 329-2280 | uleth.ca/artsci/physics-astronomy
