Quantum Gravity and Gravitons: The Search for a Theory of Everything

Mankind has made enormous strides in understanding how the universe works over the past century. There is one mystery that still eludes scientists though – what was the short time period immediately after the Big Bang like?

We know the electromagnet forces eventually broke up into strong and weak forces. We have found out a lot about photons, W/Z bosons, and gluons. But we don’t know much about gravitons yet. Physicists are working on several theories to consolidate the study of general relativity (space time) with quantum field theory (small particles).

The fields seem unrelated now, but seeing all the leaps in advancements we have made, it is just a matter of time before we have a breakthrough in understanding the beginning of the universe’s timeline.

Key Takeaways:

• Forces, including gravity, are particles that are pretty well understood.
• Gravitons are as of yet unknown and hard to describe. If we could do so easily we’d have a ‘Theory of Everything’.
• General relativity (what we see) doesn’t translate into quantum field theory (what we’ve experimented with and know) and we cannot use both in conjunction to describe the universe.

“There are certain situations in physics where we need to talk about things that are both very tiny and very massive.”

~Comments always welcome…

Reference:

• Professor Dave Explains (YouTube Channel)