Paper detail

Point-like sources and the scale of quantum gravity

We review the General Relativistic model of a (quasi) point-like particle represented by a massive shell of neutral matter which has vanishing total energy in the small-volume limit. We then show that, by assuming a Generalised Uncertainty Principle, which implies the existence of a minimum length of the order of the Planck scale, the total energy instead remains finite and equal to the shell's proper mass both for very heavy and very light particles. This suggests that the quantum structure of space-time might be related to the classical Equivalence Principle and possible implications for the late stage of evaporating black holes are briefly mentioned.