The elusive, yet seemingly inevitable, quantum nature of gravity may finally be demonstrated experimentally. Two separate groups in the UK; Chiara Marletto and Vlatko Vedral at the University of Oxford, and a team led by Sougato Bose from University College London, have proposed experiments that may for the first time reveal a link between the theories of quantum mechanics and general relativity.
Within their domains, both quantum mechanics and Einstein’s general theory of relativity seem to work incredibly well, no matter what problems physicists throw at them. However, some of the physical rules overseeing the theories appear to be fundamentally incompatible, and a unified theory of quantum gravity which marries them together has become notoriously difficult to develop.
“A formidable problem is the immense weakness of the gravitational interaction in comparison to other fundamental forces in nature,” Bose tells Physics World. “For example, even the electrostatic force between two electrons overtakes the gravitational force between two kilogram masses by several orders of magnitude.”
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