Quantum-gravity phenomenology, Lorentz symmetry, and the SME

Violations of spacetime symmetries have recently been identified as promising signatures for physics underlying the Standard Model. The present talk gives an overview over various topics in this field: The motivations for spacetime-symmetry research, including some mechanisms for Lorentz breaking, are reviewed. An effective field theory called the Standard-Model Extension (SME) for the description of the resulting low-energy effects is introduced, and some experimental tests of Lorentz and CPT invariance are discussed.