Astronomical Image Blurring from Transversely Correlated Quantum Gravity Fluctuations

Abstract

Quantum fluctuations in spacetime can, in some cases, lead to distortion in astronomical images of faraway objects. In particular, a stochastic model of quantum gravity predicts an accumulated fluctuation in the path length $\Delta L$ with variance $\langle \Delta L^2\rangle\sim l_pL$ over a distance $L$, similar to a random walk, and assuming no spatial correlation above length $l_p$; it has been argued that such an effect is ruled out by observation of sharp images from distant stars. However, in other theories, such as the pixellon (modeled on the Verlinde-Zurek (VZ) effect), quantum fluctuations can still accumulate as in the random walk model while simultaneously having large distance correlations in the fluctuations. Using renormalization by analytic continuation, we derive the correlation transverse to the light propagation, and show that image distortion effects in the pixellon model are strongly suppressed in comparison to the random walk model, thus evading all existing and future constraints. We also find that the diffraction of light rays does not lead to qualitative changes in the blurring effect.