Elias Vagenas

Dr. Elias Vagenas

Department of Physics, Kuwait University, P.O. Box 5969, Safat 13060, Kuwait

Research Focus & Metrics

Academic Career Length

27Years (2000-Present)

(Calculated once Scilit publication data is synced: current year − year of first publication + 1)

Representative Publications

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25 November 2008 in Physical Review Letters
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Journal Article
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Saurya DasSaurya Das
Saurya Das
Elias VagenasElias Vagenas
Elias Vagenas
We show that the existence of a minimum measurable length and the related generalized uncertainty principle (GUP), predicted by theories of quantum gravity, influence all quantum Hamiltonians. Thus, they predict quantum gravity corrections to various quantum phenomena. We compute such corrections to the Lamb shift, the Landau levels, and the tunneling current in a scanning tunneling microscope. We show that these corrections can be interpreted in two ways: (a) either that they are exceedingly small, beyond the reach of current experiments, or (b) that they predict upper bounds on the quantum gravity parameter in the GUP, compatible with experiments at the electroweak scale. Thus, more accurate measurements in the future should either be able to test these predictions, or further tighten the above bounds and predict an intermediate length scale between the electroweak and the Planck scale.

1 August 2009 in Physics Letters B
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Journal Article
Open access
Ahmed Farag AliAhmed Farag Ali
Ahmed Farag Ali
SDSaurya Das
Saurya Das
Elias VagenasElias Vagenas
Elias Vagenas
Various approaches to Quantum Gravity (such as String Theory and Doubly Special Relativity), as well as black hole physics predict a minimum measurable length, or a maximum observable momentum, and related modifications of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle to a so-called Generalized Uncertainty Principle (GUP). We propose a GUP consistent with String Theory, Doubly Special Relativity and black hole physics, and show that this modifies all quantum mechanical Hamiltonians. When applied to an elementary particle, it implies that the space which confines it must be quantized. This suggests that space itself is discrete, and that all measurable lengths are quantized in units of a fundamental length (which can be the Planck length). On the one hand, this signals the breakdown of the spacetime continuum picture near that scale, and on the other hand, it can predict an upper bound on the quantum gravity parameter in the GUP, from current observations. Furthermore, such fundamental discreteness of space may have observable consequences at length scales much larger than the Planck scale

3 August 2011 in Physical Review D
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Journal Article
Closed access
Ahmed Farag AliAhmed Farag Ali
Ahmed Farag Ali
Saurya DasSaurya Das
Saurya Das
Elias VagenasElias Vagenas
Elias Vagenas
Attempts to formulate a quantum theory of gravitation are collectively known as quantum gravity. Various approaches to quantum gravity such as string theory and loop quantum gravity, as well as black hole physics and doubly special relativity theories predict a minimum measurable length, or a maximum observable momentum, and related modifications of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle to a so-called generalized uncertainty principle (GUP). We have proposed a GUP consistent with string theory, black hole physics, and doubly special relativity theories and have showed that this modifies all quantum mechanical Hamiltonians. When applied to an elementary particle, it suggests that the space that confines it must be quantized, and in fact that all measurable lengths are quantized in units of a fundamental length (which can be the Planck length). On the one hand, this may signal the breakdown of the spacetime continuum picture near that scale, and on the other hand, it can predict an upper bound on the quantum gravity parameter in the GUP, from current observations. Furthermore, such fundamental discreteness of space may have observable consequences at length scales much larger than the Planck scale. Because this influences all the quantum Hamiltonians in an universal way, it predicts quantum gravity corrections to various quantum phenomena. Therefore, in the present work we compute these corrections to the Lamb shift, simple harmonic oscillator, Landau levels, and the tunneling current in a scanning tunneling microscope.

16 December 2014 in Physical Review D
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Journal Article
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LBLeonardo Balart
Leonardo Balart
Elias VagenasElias Vagenas
Elias Vagenas
We construct several charged regular black hole metrics employing mass distribution functions which are inspired by continuous probability distributions. Some of these metrics satisfy the weak energy condition and asymptotically behave as the Reissner\char21{}Nordstr\"om black hole. In each case, the source to the Einstein equations corresponds to a nonlinear electrodynamics model, which in the weak field limit becomes the Maxwell theory (compatible with the Maxwell weak field limit or approximation). Furthermore, we include other regular black hole solutions that satisfy the weak energy condition, and some of them correspond to the Maxwell theory in the weak field limit.

1 June 2010 in Physics Letters B
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Journal Article
Open access
SDSaurya Das
Saurya Das
Elias VagenasElias Vagenas
Elias Vagenas
Ahmed Farag AliAhmed Farag Ali
Ahmed Farag Ali
Various theories of Quantum Gravity predict modifications of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle near the Planck scale to a so-called Generalized Uncertainty Principle (GUP). In some recent papers, we showed that the GUP gives rise to corrections to the Schrödinger equation, which in turn affect all quantum mechanical Hamiltonians. In particular, by applying it to a particle in a one-dimensional box, we showed that the box length must be quantized in terms of a fundamental length (which could be the Planck length), which we interpreted as a signal of fundamental discreteness of space itself. In this Letter, we extend the above results to a relativistic particle in a rectangular as well as a spherical box, by solving the GUP-corrected Klein–Gordon and Dirac equations, and for the latter, to two and three dimensions. We again arrive at quantization of box length, area and volume and an indication of the fundamentally grainy nature of space. We discuss possible implications

1 March 2009 in Canadian Journal of Physics
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Journal Article
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SDSaurya Das
Saurya Das
Elias VagenasElias Vagenas
Elias Vagenas
Various theories of quantum gravity argue that near the Planck scale, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle should be replaced by the so called generalized uncertainty principle (GUP). We show that the GUP gives rise to two additional terms in any quantum mechanical Hamiltonian, proportional to βp4 and β2p6, respectively, where β ∼ 1/(MPlc)2 is the GUP parameter. These terms become important at or above the Planck energy. Considering only the first of these and treating it as a perturbation, we show that the GUP affects the Lamb shift, Landau levels, reflection and transmission coefficients of a potential step and potential barrier, and the current in a scanning tunnel microscope (STM). Although these are too small to be measurable at present, we speculate on the possibility of extracting measurable predictions in the future.