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Fundamental physics

Gravity's weight on unification

Nature volume 468, pages 40–41 (2010)Cite this article

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Much research in theoretical physics is inspired at least in part by the idea of unifying all of the fundamental forces of nature. An analysis of how gravity affects other forces at subnuclear scales has major implications for that idea. See Article p.56

One of the main goals of modern theoretical physics is to find a common framework that explains all of the fundamental forces of nature: gravity; the strong force that binds quarks into protons and neutrons; and the forces of the electroweak theory (which encompasses electromagnetism on macroscopic scales, and the 'weak' and hypercharge forces on subnuclear scales). On page 56 of this issue, Toms1 reports results that could be significant for finding such a framework. The author describes a mathematical analysis of the behaviour of gravity at ultrashort distances and of how this most familiar of forces affects 'Abelian gauge' theories, which, notably, include the theory of electromagnetism and that of the hypercharge force.

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Figure 1: Meeting at ultrashort distance scales?

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Giovanni Amelino-Camelia is in the Department of Physics, Università di Roma La Sapienza, and the Sezione Roma 1, INFN, Piazzale Moro 2, Rome 00185, Italy. giovanni.amelino-camelia@roma1.infn.it,

    Giovanni Amelino-Camelia

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  1. Giovanni Amelino-Camelia
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Amelino-Camelia, G. Gravity's weight on unification. Nature 468, 40–41 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/468040a

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