[Physics] Gravity helps unify nature's forces

[Incendia]

A new discovery that says that the electric charge of fundamental particles would have been close to 0 when the universe was fractions of a second old because of the action of gravity. If this discovery is confirmed then it could help pave the way for a unified description of physical reality.

The standard model of particle physics does a great job of accounting for the fundamental particles of nature and three of the forces that act upon them - the weak and strong nuclear forces, and the electromagnetic force but no one knows how to fit gravity into the model.

In 2006, Wilczek and Sean Robinson, both at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, showed that the electromagnetic force weakens at higher energies but only in the presence of gravity, which is neglected in the standard model. Others punched holes in their calculations so the idea remained controversial.

Now David Toms of Newcastle University in the UK has redone the calculations more rigorously and came up with the same conclusions. In the presence of gravity, electric charge tends to go to zero as energies rise.

The findings could have implications for attempts to unify all the four forces within one theoretical framework.

The LHC at CERN could provide experimental confirmation but only if the universe has extra unseen dimensions as some theories suggest. In ordinary four-dimensional space-time the electric charge would approach zero only at well beyond the reach of terrestrial experiment.

 

The article was taken from New Scientist magazine. It was written by Anil Ananthaswamy. Some information has been removed and certain words have been changed to avoid any legal issues if there would have been any from posting the article. If my attempts to avoid legal issues were futile then a moderator or admin may delete this.

Edited November 7, 2010 by ProcuratorIncendia

[Athena]

What a totally fascinating possibility. Hasn't something already been said about the expansion following the big bang, slowing and consolidation occurring when the soup began to cool? I get from what you said, that there has to be something solid before there can be gravity, and nothing can be solid at the extreme heat of the big bang. Is that right?

[Incendia]

No...For there to be gravity there must be matter...not solid...

[Athena]

Great, I was wrong again. But how wrong? Gas is matter but no solid, right? Does gas have gravity? I am trying to imagine what would have the force of gravity if not a solid?

[Incendia]

Gas is matter but not solid but still has gravity. If only solids had gravity then the sun [which is plasma] would not be able to hold onto it's planets.

[swansont]

How about a link?

[ajb]

How about a link?

 

Quantum gravitational contributions to quantum electrodynamics

Authors: David J. Toms

 

Quantum electrodynamics describes the interactions of electrons and photons. Electric charge (the gauge coupling constant) is energy dependent, and there is a previous claim that charge is affected by gravity (described by general relativity) with the implication that the charge is reduced at high energies. But that claim has been very controversial with the situation inconclusive. Here I report an analysis (free from earlier controversies) demonstrating that that quantum gravity corrections to quantum electrodynamics have a quadratic energy dependence that result in the reduction of the electric charge at high energies, a result known as asymptotic freedom.

 

 

Comments: To be published in Nature. 19 pages LaTeX, no figures

Subjects: High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th); General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc)

Cite as: arXiv:1010.0793v1 [hep-th]

[mentularum]

Gas is matter but not solid but still has gravity. If only solids had gravity then the sun [which is plasma] would not be able to hold onto it's planets.

 

In the instants after the Big Bang, would not all matter be in the form of plasma? Solids/Liquids/Gasses imply atoms, which would not then have come into being.

[Incendia]

Yes. That would be quark gluon plasma. Which then quickly became matter. What's your point?