Is gravity carried by a particle?

[Lekgolo555]

Is gravity carried by a particle, like how visible light is carried by photons? Also does other forms of radiation other than visible light like gamma or radio carried by a certain particle.

[Mowgli]

Is gravity carried by a particle, like how visible light is carried by photons? Also does other forms of radiation other than visible light like gamma or radio carried by a certain particle.

Gravity can be thought of as being mediated by graviton, much like electromagnetic interactions are modeled as photon exchanges. The mediating particles are "virtual." You might want to take a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_particle.

All EM radiations (gamma/RF/X-ray/Visible etc.) are considered photons of different momenta. Or, equivalently, waves of different frequencies.

[kagakusha]

Is gravity carried by a particle, like how visible light is carried by photons?

Yes.

 

Also does other forms of radiation other than visible light like gamma or radio carried by a certain particle.

The photon is an abstraction that is considered to apply to all forms of radiation.

[swansont]

The photon is an abstraction that is considered to apply to all forms of radiation.

 

Not really. You'd get an argument that a photon is an abstraction, and radiation includes all energetic particles emitted in nuclear reactions, which would include alphas, betas and neutrons.

[Martin]

Is gravity carried by a particle, like how visible light is carried by photons?

 

analyzing gravity in terms of gravitons is somewhat artificial.

It doesnt work if you are studying gravity in situations where space is highly curved or dynamically changing.

 

the graviton is a mathematical convention which is useful for analysis when space is nearly flat (gravity is weak) so that space can be approximated by an idealize static flat space.

 

The prevailing mainstream view of gravity is that it is best described by vintage 1915 General Relativity. So far nobody has come up with anything better that checks out by experiment. But Gen Rel cannot be adequately analyzed in terms of gravitons. So the mainstream answer to your question would be no.

 

(it is only useful to imagine it works that way in certain limited situations)

[[Tycho?]]

The photon is an abstraction that is considered to apply to all forms of radiation.

 

The photon is not an abstraction, they do exist. And they dont apply to all forms of radiation either, only EM radiation.