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Measuring the foaminess of space-time with gravity-wave interferometers

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arxiv gr-qc/9906003 v2 pith:ZJVGUQXB submitted 1999-06-01 gr-qc astro-phhep-phhep-thquant-ph

classification gr-qcastro-phhep-phhep-thquant-ph
keywords space-timedistancefoaminessinterferometersgravity-wavemeasurementsnoiseplanck
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal
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abstract

By analyzing a gedanken experiment designed to measure the distance $l$ between two spatially separated points, we find that this distance cannot be measured with uncertainty less than $(ll_P^2)^{1/3}$, considerably larger than the Planck scale $l_P$ (or the string scale in string theories), the conventional wisdom uncertainty in distance measurements. This limitation to space-time measurements is interpreted as resulting from quantum fluctuations of space-time itself. Thus, at very short distance scales, space-time is "foamy." This intrinsic foaminess of space-time provides another source of noise in the interferometers. The LIGO/VIRGO and LISA generations of gravity-wave interferometers, through future refinements, are expected to reach displacement noise levels low enough to test our proposed degree of foaminess in the structure of space-time. We also point out a simple connection to the holographic principle which asserts that the number of degrees of freedom of a region of space is bounded by the area of the region in Planck units.

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Cited by 4 Pith papers

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  1. Geometric noise spectrum in interferometers

    hep-th 2026-01 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

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  4. Geometric noise spectrum in interferometers

    hep-th 2026-01 unverdicted novelty 5.0 of 10

    Computes UV-finite noise spectra in interferometers from graviton fluctuations in vacuum/thermal/squeezed states and from massless scalar vacuum stress-energy, all Planck-suppressed.

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