Freiburg 2008 – scientific programme

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GR: Fachverband Gravitation und Relativitätstheorie

GR 9: Quantengravitation und Quantenkosmologie

GR 9.3: Talk

Wednesday, March 5, 2008, 18:45–19:05, KGI-HS 1010

Metrical fluctuations and the Weak Equivalence Principle — •Ertan Göklü und Claus Lämmerzahl — ZARM - Universität Bremen, Am Fallturm, 28359 Bremen

We describe space-time fluctuations by means of small fluctuations of the metric on a given background metric. From a minimally coupled quantum field equation we obtain within a weak-field approximation up to second order and an averaging procedure over a finite space-time scale given by the quantum particle in the non-relativistic limit a modified Schrödinger equation. The dominant modification consists in an anomalous inertial mass tensor which depends on the type of particle and on the fluctuation scenario. This necessarily leads to a violation of the weak equivalence principle and, in general, to a violation of Lorentz invariance.