Spacetime metric and lightcone fluctuations (Q1972093)

A satisfying treatment of active metric fluctuations would require a quantum theory of gravity which is not yet available. Indeed, perturbative quantum gravity is plagued with divergence problems. It is still possible, however, to construct simplified models to reproduce some of the features expected in the more complete theory. Features of this kind are both active and passive metric fluctuations. In the former case, it is possible to have lightcone fluctuations due to a bath of gravitons. Such fluctuations manifest themselves in a variable speed of propagations of photons through the spacetime region containing the gravitons. If spacetime is not Minkowskian, then even in the vacuum state there will be nonzero lightcone fluctuations. The paper under review deals with an examination of the operational definitions of such phenomena as lightcone and horizon phenomena. In the case of passive fluctuations, the problem of describing fluctuations due to a quantum stress tensor is also discussed.