Free-falling in Quantum Spacetime
PIRSA ID:
24030103
Série :
Quantum Gravity
Event Type:
Seminar
Domaine(s) scientifique(s) :
Quantum Gravity
Date de fin :
Speaker(s):
- Maulik Parikh, Arizona State University
When the spacetime metric is regarded as a quantum field, the classical trajectories of freely falling objects are subject to random fluctuations, or “noise”. This fundamental noise might even be observable at gravitational wave detectors: if detected, it would provide experimental evidence for the quantization of gravity. The effect of the quantum-gravitational noise is to turn the classical geodesic deviation equation into a stochastic, Langevin-like equation. Moreover, when these results are extended to congruences of geodesics, the quantum fluctuations of spacetime give rise to an additional term in the Raychaudhuri equation with the same sign as the other terms.
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