Distance Measurement and Wave Dispersion in a Liouville-String Approach to Quantum Gravity

Abstract

Within a Liouville approach to noncritical string theory, we discuss space–time foam effects on the propagation of low-energy particles. We find an induced frequency-dependent dispersion in the propagation of a wave packet, and observe that this would affect the outcome of measurements involving low-energy particles as probes. In particular, the maximum possible order of magnitude of the space–time foam effects would give rise to an error in the measurement of distance comparable to that independently obtained in some recent heuristic quantum-gravity analyses. We also briefly compare these error estimates with the precision of astrophysical measurements.