A perspective on Quantum Gravity Phenomenology

Abstract

I give a brief overview of some Quantum-Gravity-Phenomenology research lines, focusing on studies of cosmic rays and gamma-ray bursts that concern the fate of Lorentz symmetry in quantum spacetime. I also stress that the most valuable phenomenological analyses should not mix too many conjectured new features of quantum spacetime, and from this perspective it appears that it should be difficult to obtain reliable guidance on the quantum-gravity problem from the analysis of synchrotron radiation from the Crab nebula and from the analysis of phase coherence of light from extragalactic sources. Forthcoming observatories of ultra-high-energy neutrinos should provide several opportunities for clean tests of some simple hypothesis for the short-distance structure of spacetime. In particular, these neutrino studies, and some related cosmic-ray studies, should provide access to the regime $E>\sqrt{m E_p}$.Comment: 15 pages, LaTex. These notes provided the basis for the ``summary talk" which I gave as chairman of the QG1 session (``Quantum Gravity Phenomenology") at the "10th Marcel Grossmann Meeting on General Relativity" (Rio de Janeiro, July 20-26, 2003). V2: Additional remarks (especially on synchrotron radiation) and additional reference