Title:
Quantum Gravity Phenomenology: An Integrated Epistemic Approach
Abstract:
Quantum gravity (QG) is often characterised as a purely theoretical endeavour aimed at describing physics beyond the reach of current experimental apparatuses. Viable proposals are required to recover the general relativistic framework at low energies: this reduction principle secures the empirical success of general relativity within overlapping domains. By contrast, QG phenomenology seeks potential QG signatures in astrophysical settings, seemingly challenging reduction. In particular, the multi-messenger approach builds on recent advances in high-energy astrophysics to identify candidate observational windows on QG. Despite this, philosophers of physics have largely neglected the role of QG phenomenology in theory building. This neglect motivates a closer examination of the epistemological basis of phenomenological results and their relation to reduction. In this presentation, I argue for two claims. First, phenomenological results refine how the reduction principle is applied in QG. Second, QG phenomenology complements reduction by exploiting it to constrain the domain of viable QG theories. I argue that these results require anintegrated epistemology to support their theoretical significance. I illustrate this claim by examining Lorentz-invariance-violating theories as promising case studies.