Graviton

Hypothetical elementary particle that mediates gravity / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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In theories of quantum gravity, the graviton is the hypothetical quantum of gravity, an elementary particle that mediates the force of gravitational interaction. There is no complete quantum field theory of gravitons due to an outstanding mathematical problem with renormalization in general relativity. In string theory, believed by some to be a consistent theory of quantum gravity, the graviton is a massless state of a fundamental string.

Quick facts: Composition, Statistics, Family, Interactions...
Graviton
CompositionElementary particle
StatisticsBose–Einstein statistics
Familyspin-2 boson
InteractionsGravitation
StatusHypothetical
SymbolG[1]
AntiparticleSelf
Theorized1930s[2]
The name is attributed to Dmitrii Blokhintsev and F. M. Gal'perin in 1934[3]
Mass0
< 6×10−32 eV/c2 [4]
Mean lifetimestable
Electric charge0 e
Spin2
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If it exists, the graviton is expected to be massless because the gravitational force has a very long range, and appears to propagate at the speed of light. The graviton must be a spin-2 boson because the source of gravitation is the stress–energy tensor, a second-order tensor (compared with electromagnetism's spin-1 photon, the source of which is the four-current, a first-order tensor). Additionally, it can be shown that any massless spin-2 field would give rise to a force indistinguishable from gravitation, because a massless spin-2 field would couple to the stress–energy tensor in the same way that gravitational interactions do. This result suggests that, if a massless spin-2 particle is discovered, it must be the graviton.[5]