Oct. 14 () –
A new theory published in the journal ‘General Relativity and Gravity’ suggests that space-time would be composed of “entangled pairs” of photon-like particles (light particles), known as “virtual bosons.”
A Spaniard with a doctorate in physics and mathematics, Professor Robert Monjo, from the Department of Math and Computer Science at the Saint Louis University-Madrid Campus, has led this research in collaboration with Professor Rutwig Campoamor-Stursberg, director of the Algebra department. Geometry and Topology from the Complutense University of Madrid, and postdoctoral researcher Álvaro Rodríguez-Abella from the University of California, Los Angeles, who takes an important step forward to understand the real nature of space-time.
“There was a huge gap between gravity and the rest of the forces of nature, but now we have found a bridge that unites them“conclude the authors.
Physics and mathematics are closely connected through symmetries, defined as the invariance of observed magnitudes when the observation references are transformed.
Examples of symmetry are found, for example, in “quantum electrodynamics”, responsible for electromagnetism, and ““quantum chromodynamics” or “color dynamics”“, responsible for the force that predominates in atoms. Thus, the authors of the study extend the idea of ”color” symmetry to understand gravity and electromagnetism as two particular cases of a more general theory.
The article titled ‘From colored gravity to electromagnetism’ generalizes a 1928 work by Albert Einstein, known as “teleparallel gravity,” which sought to reinterpret the current concept of gravity within four-dimensional space.
Einstein’s original idea in 1916, the famous “general relativity theory“, explains gravity according to the curvature of space-time: The elliptical movements of planets are described as the most “straight” line possible (known as a geodesic) in a spacetime that is curved by the mass of the Sun.
However, the other theory published in 1928 by the same genius, which remained almost forgotten for decades, already demonstrated that curvature produces the same dynamic effects as a torsion of space-time. To understand this idea, we can imagine a completely flattened spring (with circular curvature) that is then fully stretched to form a straight line that is twisted on itself like a screw (torsion).
That is, the same spring can be described as a perfectly circular ring or a perfectly twisted straight line, as two extreme ways of studying the same object. This equivalence between curvature and torsion produces the same effect, gravitational acceleration, and only depends on the theoretical framework chosen.
According to the authors of the article, The torsion generated by two “virtual bosons” is needed to obtain a phenomenon similar to that produced by the hypothetical gravity particle, known as a “graviton”. This particle, the authors comment, is characterized by a double twist or ‘spin 2’ similar to the double helix of DNA.
With this theory, the concepts of gravity and electromagnetism would be expanded into a new, more general concept: “colored gravity.” However, there are important antecedents: Physicists Theodor Kaluza and Oskar Klein proposed a very similar idea between 1919 and 1926, but they needed to assume a fifth dimension in addition to the four known ones.
According to Monjo, ““Albert Einstein was very close to achieving it, he just needed to consider more suitable coordinates to draw the missing bridge.”
For Monjo, “it is necessary to consider the delocalization of a given particle, since quantum theories treat the position as a set of possible values given by an operator or matrix, instead of a univocal value.”
Currently, the authors of the study continue to analyze the possible theoretical repercussions of the finding, stating that “It is likely that the rest of the forces of nature are also included in colored gravity.“If the latter is confirmed, it would not only be an alternative technique to obtain quantum gravity, but new paths could also be opened towards the unification of all forces, the old dream of Albert Einstein.
Add Comment