Effect of quantum and thermal jitter on the feasibility of Bekenstein's proposed experiment to search for Planck-scale signals

Effect of quantum and thermal jitter on the feasibility of Bekenstein’s proposed experiment to search for Planck-scale signals

G. Jordan Maclay, S. A. Wadood, Eric D. Black, and Peter W. Milonni

Phys. Rev. D 99, 124053 – Published 28 June 2019

Abstract

A proposed experiment to test whether space is discretized [J. D. Bekenstein, Phys. Rev. D 86, 124040 (2012); Found. Phys. 44, 452 (2014)] is based on the supposed impossibility of an incident photon causing a displacement of a transparent block by less than the Planck length. An analysis of the quantum and thermal jitter of the block shows that it greatly diminishes the possibility that the experiment could reveal Planck-scale signals.

Received 30 May 2018

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.99.124053

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Experimental studies of gravity

Gravitation, Cosmology & Astrophysics

Authors & Affiliations

G. Jordan Maclay ^1,*, S. A. Wadood^2,3,†, Eric D. Black^4,‡, and Peter W. Milonni^5,6,§

¹Quantum Fields LLC, 147 Hunt Club Drive, St. Charles, Illinois 60174, USA
²Institute of Optics, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627, USA
³Center for Coherence and Quantum Optics, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627, USA
⁴Department of Physics, California Institute of Technology, MC 264-33, Pasadena, California 91125, USA
⁵Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA
⁶Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627, USA