Universality of free fall in planck-scale deformed Newtonian gravity

authored by

Giuseppe Fabiano, Domenico Frattulillo, Christian Pfeifer, Fabian Wagner

Abstract

The universality of free fall is one of the most cherished principles in classical gravity. Its fate in the quantum world is one of the key questions in fundamental physics. We investigate the universality of free fall in the context of Planck scale modifications of Newtonian gravity. Starting from a doubly-special-relativity setting we take the Newtonian limit to obtain deformed Galilean relativity. We study the interaction between two test particles, subject to deformed Galilean relativity, and a classical, undeformed gravitational source, the Earth. Such an interaction is investigated here for the first time. Considering the two test particles falling freely in the source's gravitational field, we examine whether the universality of free fall is affected by deformed relativistic symmetries. We show that, in general, the universality of free fall is violated. Remarkably, we find that there exist distinguished models for which the universality of free fall is realized and which predict a specific modification of the Newtonian potential.

External Organisation(s)

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
University of California at Berkeley
Enrico Fermi Center
Monte S. Angelo University Federico II
University of Bremen
Heidelberg University

Type

Article

Journal

Physical Review D

Volume

112

Pages

124008-1-124008-12

ISSN

2470-0010

Publication date

02.12.2025

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Nuclear and High Energy Physics

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1103/whyz-n93x (Access: Unknown)