Cited by 41Noncommutative and Quantum Gravity TheoriesRelativity and Gravitational TheoryBlack Holes and Theoretical Physics

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 442 of the 443 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; none of the 222 sources its claims cite is checked for support yet.

Spacetime foam: a review

Open access
Carlip, S·2023·Reports on Progress in Physics

Abstract

More than 65 years ago, John Wheeler suggested that quantum uncertainties of the metric would be of order one at the Planck scale, leading to large fluctuations in spacetime geometry and topology, which he termed ‘spacetime foam.’ In this review I discuss various attempts to implement this idea and to test it, both theoretically and, to a lesser extent, observationally.

Overview

AI snapshot

Written from the paper’s full text.

TL;DR

This review surveys theoretical and observational work on Wheeler’s “spacetime foam,” the idea that metric fluctuations become order one at the Planck scale. It finds that foam remains highly model-dependent, with no complete quantum gravity theory, but that path integral, lattice, canonical, and phenomenological approaches suggest possible Planck-scale topology/geometry fluctuations and some observational signatures.

Key findings

  • Wheeler’s original estimate gives metric fluctuations \(\delta g \sim \ell_p/L\), becoming order one at the Planck scale; the review stresses that this and all foam claims depend on the approach to quantum gravity.
  • In the Euclidean path integral with \(\Lambda<0\), the density of topologies grows superexponentially, \(\rho(\tilde v)\sim e^{a\tilde v\ln\tilde v}\), so the sum over topologies diverges and “entropy” dominates “action”; whether it is Borel summable is unknown.
  • Quantum stress-energy fluctuations are mostly negative: in 2D conformal field theory with \(c=1\), 84% of vacuum fluctuations are negative, with a strict lower bound and an infinite positive tail; 4D results are qualitatively similar, with a slower-decaying tail \(\sim e^{-x^{1/3}}\).
  • Causal dynamical triangulations excludes topology change but allows large geometry fluctuations; spectral dimension is \(d_S=4\) at large scales, shrinks to \(d_S\approx 2\) at small scales, and is \(d_S\approx 1.5\) for a constant-time slice.
  • Proposed observational tests include Lorentz breaking, decoherence/CPT violation, starlight blurring, interferometer noise, spectral-line broadening, and cosmological effects; the review reports no confirmed detection and notes some models are ruled out by existing limits.

Methods

  • This is a narrative review, not a primary research paper; it synthesizes prior theoretical and phenomenological literature on spacetime foam.
  • It covers Euclidean path integrals and gravitational instantons, lattice methods including causal dynamical triangulations, canonical quantization/Wheeler-DeWitt, lower-dimensional models, and proposed observational tests.
  • The main analysis is qualitative and comparative, assessing which approaches permit foamy geometries, topology change, or observable effects, and where sums over topologies or fluctuations diverge.

Limitations

  • The paper explicitly calls itself an “incomplete review,” notes that “spacetime foam” is a vague slogan, and states that answers depend on one’s approach to quantum gravity, with no complete theory available.
  • The paper states that studies of stress-energy fluctuations neglect correlations between successive fluctuations and do not account for the quantum nature of the gravitational field itself.
  • The text makes evident that sums over topologies often diverge without known regularization, that averaging observables in foamy spacetimes is conceptually difficult, and that many observational proposals are model-dependent and not yet confirmed.

Model-written summary. Check it against the paper before relying on it.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1088/1361-6633/acceb4

Cites

442 of 443 references verified1 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Nothing to recompute.

Verification

Claims the paper makes

130 Sources not found · 62 Own interpretation · 34 No basis given · 4 Not checked yet · 2 Own method

Show all 94 claims

  • Probably not a substantial claim. 79
  • It may state two separate claims as one. 87
  • The quote only partly states this claim. 2
138 of 138
  • The authors state this as an assumption.

    Matter effects at Planck-scale distances are negligible except perhaps very near a singularity, so vacuum solutions can be considered.

    “Omitting matter is a physically reasonable assumption.We are interested in geometry at the Planck scale, and except perhaps very near a singularity, the effects of matter at such short distances are negligible; even a neutron star has a density of only 10 -79 in Planck units.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The coefficients α and β of the quadratic curvature corrections are of order ℓp^2.

    “The coefficients α and β are expected to be of order ℓ p 2 , and the corrections are likely to be negligible at ordinary scales, but they may become important near the Planck scale.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    We do not yet have a complete quantum theory of gravity.

    “Unfortunately, we do not yet have a complete quantum theory of gravity.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Spacetime foam is not a terribly well-defined notion.

    “Of course, as noted earlier, “spacetime foam” is not a terribly well-defined notion.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The Planck scale is very small, and structures at that scale would plausibly wash out over larger distances.

    “This is not entirely clear-the Planck scale is very small, and it is plausible that structures at that scale would wash out over larger distances”
5 of 5

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

Each contradiction between two passages listed here was confirmed by an independent check.

1 of 1

Citations

Cites

Research works printed but not linked: 6

  1. Wheeler, 1981, The lesson of the black hole, Proc. Am. Phil. Soc., 125, 25
  2. Thorpe, 1969, Some remarks on the Gauss-Bonnet formula, J. Math. Mech., 18, 779
  3. Gromov, 2010, Visions in Mathematics: Geom. Funct. Anal. 2000 Special Volume, Part I, p 118
  4. Seifert, 1930, Topologische Untersuchung der Discontinuitätsbereiche endlicher Bewegungsgruppen des dreidimensionalen sphärischen Raumes, Math. Ann., 104, 1
  5. Khriplovich, 1966, Gravitation and finite renormalizations in quantum electrodynamics, Sov. J. Nucl. Phys., 3, 415
  6. Pauli, 1956, Helv. Phys. Acta Suppl., 4, 69

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Metadata

Authors
Carlip, S.
Affiliations
University of California, Davis (US)
Corresponding author
Carlip, S
Venue
Reports on Progress in Physics
Published
2023-05-05
Volume
86
Issue
6
Pages
066001
ISSN
  • 0034-4885 (ISSN-L)
  • 1361-6633
OpenAlex
W4366468183
Cited by
41
References
286
Citations by year
2026: 9 · 2025: 15 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 9
FWCI
1.48
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Reports on Progress in Physics (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
  • OSTI OAI (U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information) (submittedVersion)
  • arXiv (Cornell University)
Funders
U.S. Department of Energy (DE-FG02-91ER40674)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Nuclear and High Energy Physics › Noncommutative and Quantum Gravity Theories
  • Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Relativity and Gravitational Theory
  • Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Nuclear and High Energy Physics › Black Holes and Theoretical Physics
Keywords
spacetime foam, Planck scale, quantum gravity, spacetime topology, John Wheeler

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