The transparency of the universe to high-energy gamma rays is governed by interactions with low-energy photons from the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) and Extragalactic Background Light (EBL) via Breit-Wheeler pair production. New physics models that suppress this process predict increased transparency, offering a testable scenario. This talk explores how such suppression arises within...
In this talk, the role of gravitationally induced decoherence in open quantum systems is explored in the context of neutrinos. A microscopic quantum mechanical model introduced by Blencowe and Xu is applied to neutrino oscillations, motivated by the coupling between neutrinos and the gravitational wave environment suggested by linearised gravity. The analysis demonstrates that, for neutrino...
One of the main challenges in theoretical physics is the unification of general relativity and quantum field theory, leading to the development of a consistent theory of quantum gravity. In this talk, we explore how the deformation of special relativistic kinematics can provide a framework to describe residual effects of quantum gravity at low energies. We analyze how introducing a curved...
Black holes provide a setting to test assumptions about the interplay of quantum theory and gravity. These tests have led to several puzzles, such as the xeroxing or firewall paradox. A common feature of these puzzles is that they combine the perspectives of an infalling observer and an exterior observer, who, for fundamental reasons, have access to different systems. In quantum foundations,...
This talk presents recent developments on a non-perturbative quantisation of gravitational subsystems on a light cone. Starting from the covariant phase space for the γ-Palatini--Holst action, we identify an auxiliary conformal field theory (CFT), which carries a representation of the constraint algebra of general relativity on a null surface. In the model, the radiative data, which is encoded...
