The flavor of quantum gravity

Abstract

We develop an effective field theory to describe the coupling of non-thermal quantum black holes to particles such as those of the Standard Model. The effective Lagrangian is determined by imposing that the production cross section of a non-thermal quantum black hole be given by the usual geometrical cross section. Having determined the effective Lagrangian, we estimate the contribution of a virtual hole to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon, μ→eγ transition and to the electric dipole moment of the neutron. We obtain surprisingly weak bounds on the Planck mass due to a chiral suppression factor in the calculated low energy observables. The tightest bounds come from μ→eγ and the limit on the neutron electric dipole moment. These bounds are in the few TeV region.