TY - JOUR
T1 - Cosmic rays and TeV photons as probes of quantum properties of space-time
AU - Amelino-Camelia, Giovanni
AU - Piran, Tsvi
PY - 2001/1/11
Y1 - 2001/1/11
N2 - It has been recently observed that small violations of Lorentz invariance, of a type which may arise in quantum gravity, could explain both the observations of cosmic rays above the GZK cutoff and the observations of 20-TeV gamma rays from Markarian 501. We show here that different pictures of the short-distance structure of space-time would lead to different forms of violation of ordinary Lorentz invariance. In particular, even space-time models leading to the same deformed dispersion relation, the only aspect of Lorentz-invariance violation considered in most recent studies, can lead to very different predictions for the physics of cosmic rays and high-energy gamma rays. This could provide an unexpected window on the (possibly quantum) nature of space-time at very short distances.
AB - It has been recently observed that small violations of Lorentz invariance, of a type which may arise in quantum gravity, could explain both the observations of cosmic rays above the GZK cutoff and the observations of 20-TeV gamma rays from Markarian 501. We show here that different pictures of the short-distance structure of space-time would lead to different forms of violation of ordinary Lorentz invariance. In particular, even space-time models leading to the same deformed dispersion relation, the only aspect of Lorentz-invariance violation considered in most recent studies, can lead to very different predictions for the physics of cosmic rays and high-energy gamma rays. This could provide an unexpected window on the (possibly quantum) nature of space-time at very short distances.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0035843226&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/S0370-2693(00)01337-X
DO - 10.1016/S0370-2693(00)01337-X
M3 - ???researchoutput.researchoutputtypes.contributiontojournal.article???
AN - SCOPUS:0035843226
SN - 0370-2693
VL - 497
SP - 265
EP - 270
JO - Physics Letters, Section B: Nuclear, Elementary Particle and High-Energy Physics
JF - Physics Letters, Section B: Nuclear, Elementary Particle and High-Energy Physics
IS - 3-4
ER -