From B-modes to quantum gravity and unification of forces
It is commonly anticipated that gravity is subjected to the standard principles of quantum mechanics. Yet some — including Einstein — have questioned that presumption, whose empirical basis is weak. Indeed, recently Dyson has emphasized that no conventional experiment is capable of detecting individ...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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World Scientific Publishing
2015
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/98471 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6489-6155 |
| _version_ | 1811076263778975744 |
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| author | Krauss, Lawrence M. Wilczek, Frank |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics Krauss, Lawrence M. Wilczek, Frank |
| author_sort | Krauss, Lawrence M. |
| collection | MIT |
| description | It is commonly anticipated that gravity is subjected to the standard principles of quantum mechanics. Yet some — including Einstein — have questioned that presumption, whose empirical basis is weak. Indeed, recently Dyson has emphasized that no conventional experiment is capable of detecting individual gravitons. However, as we describe, if inflation occurred, the universe, by acting as an ideal graviton amplifier, affords such access. It produces a classical signal, in the form of macroscopic gravitational waves, in response to spontaneous (not induced) emission of gravitons. Thus recent BICEP2 observations of polarization in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) will, if confirmed, provide firm empirical evidence for the quantization of gravity. Their details also support quantitative ideas concerning the unification of strong, electromagnetic and weak forces, and of all these with gravity. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T10:18:55Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/98471 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T10:18:55Z |
| publishDate | 2015 |
| publisher | World Scientific Publishing |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/984712022-09-26T17:09:05Z From B-modes to quantum gravity and unification of forces Krauss, Lawrence M. Wilczek, Frank Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics Wilczek, Frank It is commonly anticipated that gravity is subjected to the standard principles of quantum mechanics. Yet some — including Einstein — have questioned that presumption, whose empirical basis is weak. Indeed, recently Dyson has emphasized that no conventional experiment is capable of detecting individual gravitons. However, as we describe, if inflation occurred, the universe, by acting as an ideal graviton amplifier, affords such access. It produces a classical signal, in the form of macroscopic gravitational waves, in response to spontaneous (not induced) emission of gravitons. Thus recent BICEP2 observations of polarization in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) will, if confirmed, provide firm empirical evidence for the quantization of gravity. Their details also support quantitative ideas concerning the unification of strong, electromagnetic and weak forces, and of all these with gravity. 2015-09-14T12:30:56Z 2015-09-14T12:30:56Z 2014-06 2014-05 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0218-2718 1793-6594 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/98471 Krauss, Lawrence M., and Frank Wilczek. “From B-Modes to Quantum Gravity and Unification of Forces.” Int. J. Mod. Phys. D 23, no. 12 (October 2014): 1441001. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6489-6155 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1142/S0218271814410016 International Journal of Modern Physics D Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ application/pdf World Scientific Publishing arXiv |
| spellingShingle | Krauss, Lawrence M. Wilczek, Frank From B-modes to quantum gravity and unification of forces |
| title | From B-modes to quantum gravity and unification of forces |
| title_full | From B-modes to quantum gravity and unification of forces |
| title_fullStr | From B-modes to quantum gravity and unification of forces |
| title_full_unstemmed | From B-modes to quantum gravity and unification of forces |
| title_short | From B-modes to quantum gravity and unification of forces |
| title_sort | from b modes to quantum gravity and unification of forces |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/98471 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6489-6155 |
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