Quantum gravity theories wiped out by a gamma ray burst

[drwayne]

What a photon it was: a 31GeV gamma ray picked up by the orbiting Fermi Telescope. Because of the timing of its arrival, an entire class of quantum gravity models suddenly seems unlikely. More data of this sort may be coming soon, as scientists have now confirmed the oldest supernova yet detected, dating from just 630 million years after the big bang.

Rest of the story at Ars Technica

http://arstechnica.com/science/news/200 ... -burst.ars

 

[ramparts]

Yep - that result came out this summer, and left some string theory folks gloating at victory (as the effects which weren't found are predicted by string theory to not be there, while Lorentz-violating theories like loop quantum gravity notably do). Cool stuff.

 

[darkmatter4brains]

interesting article ... thanks 4 sharing!

I always thought that sacrificing Lorentz Invariance was a little too radical, especially since it is so important to a number of successful theories. Good to see it still being confirmed.