Two groups of physicists from the United Kingdom had the idea of unifying the quantum mechanics and the general relativity theories in a new experiment.
Quantum mechanics represents the theory of particles movement at an atomic scale and has emerged as a way to understand phenomena that had no explanation, otherwise. Such phenomena explained by quantum mechanics are the atoms structure and their interaction with the electromagnetic radiation.
On the other hand, there is the general relativity theory, the well-known theory of Physics that considers that the gravity is acting on a continuous space-time fabric.
Objects movements can be accurately predicted using the general relativity theory.
Even though both theories are remarkably explaining the Universe, one’s fans are in contradiction with the fans of the other.
As Sougato Bose, a physicist at the University of Central London explained, the gravitational force raises a big problem as it’s presenting weakness in comparison with other nature’s forces.
‘Even the electrostatic force between two electrons overtake the gravitational force between two kilograms masses’, Sougato Bose explains for Physics World.
In 1957, Richard Feynman, an American physicist, has come up with a new theory meant to bring the two aforementioned theories on a common ground. He thought that when a mass found in superposition – existing as a probability – is placed into a gravitational field, it will be connected with the gravity’s quantum properties, a process known as entanglement.
One group of physicists at the University of Oxford came up with the theory that three quantum systems can be entangled together, too, only if the third one is very quantized.
This opens the possibility of connecting two masses in superposition with a gravitational field found in its quantum version.
After this new idea came out, the second group of physicists, now from the University of Central London proposed an experiment in which they will use a so-called ‘quantum gravity mediator’ to entangle the quantum masses.
The will definitely be a real challenge for the scientists but the rewards could be huge. Hopefully, the findings of this future experiment will bring up some new theories on the Universe and its physics.
