Experimental Tests
As was emphasized above, quantum gravitational effects are extremely weak and therefore difficult to test. For this reason, the possibility of experimentally testing quantum gravity had not received much attention prior to the late 1990s. However, in the past decade, physicists have realized that evidence for quantum gravitational effects can guide the development of the theory. Since the theoretical development has been slow, the phenomenology of quantum gravity which studies the possibility of experimental tests, has obtained increased attention.
There is presently no confirmed experimental signature of quantum gravitational effects. The most widely pursued possibilities for quantum gravity phenomenology include violations of Lorentz invariance, imprints of quantum gravitational effects in the Cosmic Microwave Background (in particular its polarization), and decoherence induced by fluctuations in the space-time foam.
Read more about this topic: Quantum Gravity
Famous quotes containing the words experimental and/or tests:
“Philosophers of science constantly discuss theories and representation of reality, but say almost nothing about experiment, technology, or the use of knowledge to alter the world. This is odd, because ‘experimental method’ used to be just another name for scientific method.... I hope [to] initiate a Back-to-Bacon movement, in which we attend more seriously to experimental science. Experimentation has a life of its own.”
—Ian Hacking (b. 1936)
“One of the tests of the civilization of people is the treatment of its criminals.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)