We propose a deepening of the relativity principle according to which the invariant arena for nonquantum physics is a phase space rather than spacetime. Descriptions of particles propagating and interacting in spacetimes are constructed by observers, but different observers, separated from each other by translations, construct different spacetime projections from the invariant phase space. Nonetheless, all observers agree that interactions are local in the spacetime coordinates constructed by observers local to them. This framework, in which absolute locality is replaced by relative locality, results from deforming energy-momentum space, just as the passage from absolute to relative simultaneity results from deforming the linear addition of velocities. Different aspects of energy-momentum space geometry, such as its curvature, torsion and nonmetricity, are reflected in different kinds of deformations of the energy-momentum conservation laws. These are in principle all measurable by appropriate experiments. We also discuss a natural set of physical hypotheses which singles out the cases of energy-momentum space with a metric compatible connection and constant curvature.

A quantization of unimodular gravity is described, which results in a quantum effective action which is also unimodular, ie a function of a metric with fixed determinant. A consequence is that contributions to the energy-momentum tensor of the form of $g_{ab}C$, where $C$ is a spacetime constant, whether classical or quantum, are not sources of curvature in the equations of motion derived from the quantum effective action. This solves the first cosmological constant problem, which is suppressing the enormous contributions to the cosmological constant coming from quantum corrections. We discuss several forms of unimodular gravity and put two of them, including one proposed by Henneaux and Teitelboim, in constrained Hamiltonian form. The path integral is constructed from the latter. Furthermore, the second cosmological constant problem, which is why the measured value is so small, is also addressed by this theory. We argue that a mechanism first proposed by Ng and van Dam for suppressing the cosmological constant by quantum effects obtains at the semiclassical level.

It is shown that gravity in 2+1 dimensions coupled to point particles provides a nontrivial example of doubly special relativity (DSR). This result is obtained by interpretation of previous results in the field and by exhibiting an explicit transformation between the phase space algebra for one particle in 2+1 gravity found by Matschull and Welling and the corresponding DSR algebra. The identification of 2+1 gravity as a DSR system answers a number of questions concerning the latter, and resolves the ambiguity of the basis of the algebra of observables. Based on this observation a heuristic argument is made that the algebra of symmetries of ultra high energy particle kinematics in 3+1 dimensions is described by some DSR theory.

We discuss the prospects for bounding and perhaps even measuring quantum gravity effects on the dispersion of light using the highest-energy photons produced in gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) measured by the Fermi telescope. These prospects are brighter than might have been expected, as in the first ten months of operation, Fermi has so far reported eight events with photons over 100 MeV seen by its Large Area Telescope. We review features of these events which may bear on Planck-scale phenomenology, and we discuss the possible implications for alternative scenarios for in-vacua dispersion coming from breaking or deforming of Poincaré invariance. Among these are semiconservative bounds (which rely on some relatively weak assumptions about the sources) on subluminal and superluminal in-vacuo dispersion. We also propose that it may be possible to look for the arrival of still higher-energy photons and neutrinos from GRBs with energies in the range ${10}^{14}–{10}^{17}\mathrm{eV}$. In some cases the quantum gravity dispersion effect would predict these arrivals to be delayed or advanced by days to months from the GRB, giving a clean separation of astrophysical source and spacetime propagation effects.

We describe an extension of special relativity characterized by three invariant scales, the speed of light $c$, a mass $\kappa$, and a length $R$. This is defined by a nonlinear extension of the Poincaré algebra $\mathcal{A}$, which we describe here. For $R\to \infty$, $\mathcal{A}$ becomes the Snyder presentation of the $\kappa$-Poincaré algebra, while for $\kappa \to \infty$ it becomes the phase space algebra of a particle in de Sitter spacetime. We conjecture that the algebra is relevant for the low energy behavior of quantum gravity, with $\kappa$ taken to be the Planck mass, for the case of a nonzero cosmological constant $\Lambda =R^{-2}$. We study the modifications of particle motion which follow if the algebra is taken to define the Poisson structure of the phase space of a relativistic particle.