Related papers: Gravitational Effects in Quantum Mechanics
It is commonly anticipated that gravity is subject to the standard principles of quantum mechanics. Yet some (including Einstein) have questioned that presumption, whose empirical basis is weak. Indeed, recently Freeman Dyson has emphasized…
Motivated by the similarity of the mathematical structure of Einstein's General Relativity in its weak field limit and of Maxwell's theory of electrodynamics it is shown that there are gravitational analogues of the Josephson effect and the…
The quantum theory of gravity is considered based on the assumption that gravitational interaction occurs by means of the vector field of the Planck mass. Gravitational emission is considered as a process of the decay of proton into some…
Even if Einstein's General Relativity achieved a great success and overcame lots of experimental tests, it also showed some shortcomings and flaws which today advise theorists to ask if it is the definitive theory of gravity. In this…
The issues related to bringing together the principles of general relativity and quantum theory are discussed. After briefly summarising the points of conflict between the two formalisms I focus on four specific themes in which some contact…
General Relativity is today the best theory of gravity addressing a wide range of phenomena. Our understanding of physical laws, from cosmology to local scales, cannot be properly formulated without taking into account it. It is based on…
We know that the generally accepted theories of gravity and quantum mechanics are fundamentally incompatible. Thus, when we try to combine these theories, we must beware of physical pitfalls. Modern theories of quantum gravity are trying to…
The search for a new scientific theory is typically prompted by an encounter with something in the world that cannot be explained by current theories. This is not the case for the search for a theory of quantum gravity, which has been…
Quantum theory and general relativity are about one century old. At present, they are considered the best available explanations of physical reality, and they have been so far corroborated by all experiments realised so far. Nonetheless,…
Einstein's theory of General Relativity is the benchmark example for empirical success and mathematical elegance in theoretical physics. However, in spite of being the most successfully tested theory in physics, there are strong theoretical…
The mutual conceptual incompatibility between GR and QM/QFT is generally seen as the most essential motivation for the development of a theory of Quantum Gravity (QG). It leads to the insight that, if gravity is a fundamental interaction…
`How do our ideas about quantum mechanics affect our understanding of spacetime?' This familiar question leads to quantum gravity. The complementary question is also important: `How do our ideas about spacetime affect our understanding of…
The problem of reconciling general relativity and quantum theory has fascinated and bedeviled physicists for more than 70 years. Despite recent progress in string theory and loop quantum gravity, a complete solution remains out of reach. I…
A satisfactory theory of quantum gravity may necessitate a drastic modification of our perception of space-time, by giving it a foamy structure at distances comparable to the Planck length. It is argued in this essay that the experimental…
We study the interplay of general relativity, the equivalence principle, and high-precision experiments involving atomic transitions and g factor measurements. In particular, we derive a generalized Dirac Hamiltonian, which describes both…
I give a pedagogical explanation of what it is about quantization that makes general relativity go from being a nearly perfect classical theory to a very problematic quantum one. I also explain why some quantization of gravity is…
The ordinary quantum theory points out that general relativity is negligible for spatial distances up to the Planck scale. Consistency in the foundations of the quantum theory requires a``soft'' spacetime structure of the general relativity…
The unification of gravity and quantum mechanics remains one of the most profound open questions in science. With recent advances in quantum technology, an experimental idea first proposed by Richard Feynman is now regarded as a promising…
Usual quantum mechanics requires a fixed, background, spacetime geometry and its associated causal structure. A generalization of the usual theory may therefore be needed at the Planck scale for quantum theories of gravity in which…
In this paper, we study implications of the geometrical nature of space- time for some of the basic tenets of quantum mechanics. That is, we study two different implications of the principle of general covariance; first we quantize a…