Observational signatures of quantum gravity in interferometers

• Published in: Physics letters. B Vol. 822; p. 136663
• Main Authors: Verlinde, Erik P., Zurek, Kathryn M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 10-11-2021; Elsevier
• ISSN: 0370-2693; 1873-2445
• DOI: 10.1016/j.physletb.2021.136663

We consider the uncertainty in the arm length of an interferometer due to metric fluctuations from the quantum nature of gravity, proposing a concrete microscopic model of energy fluctuations in holographic degrees of freedom on the surface bounding a causally connected region of spacetime. In our model, fluctuations longitudinal to the beam direction accumulate in the infrared and feature strong long distance correlation in the transverse direction. This leads to a signal that could be observed in a gravitational wave interferometer. We connect the positional uncertainty principle arising from our calculations to the 't Hooft gravitational S-matrix.