The Theoretical: Do gravitons exist, or should they?

 

The Theoretical: Do gravitons exist, or should they?

By: Ian Davis
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Credit and found: https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DiQpZQLLbk6E&psig=AOvVaw3XvFRLLa8caB3aqfeRkTKT&ust=1622293201486000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCOCfnqO37PACFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD

Introduction:

You may or may not have heard of the expression "Gravitons" in a physics class, or perhaps any college-level science class that is introducing the Theoretical. I heard the term when I was watching a video by DoS on YouTube talking about the map of particle physics, and the video had introduced the term. There, I have begun to research them a little, and it turned into a rabbit hole.

We know there are a large amount of "force carriers" that we have. Like we have covered before,  the strong force is a Gluon, which is in between a pair of quarks. The next set is ElectroMagnetism, which is carried by a photon, or basically light. Onto another smaller ranged force carrier, a W and Z boson generally (specifically W-, W+, and Z0.), which carries the Weak Force, that is a new article I will write sooner or later. At last, there is one, a force is known to most as gravity, the range is infinite, and it acts between particles with mass (unless you're a black hole and light, but another story for another time), yet it doesn't have a force carrier. The proposed force carrier is a Graviton. So, do you think it exists? Let's get into the bulwarks, shall we?
My Research:

We have realized that all forces have carriers; like we had previously discussed, they are minimal and come in waves, typically. We also know that the four forces are further split into two ranges, two with an infinite range like electromagnetism and gravity. Two with limited ranges (ones dealing directly with particles) like weak forces and strong force. We also can determine the strength; starting at the top, it goes Strong Force (duh), Electromagnetism, Weak Force, and then gravity. Yet, with that strength barrier comes our epitome.

Credit and found: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/teachers/activities/images/3012_elegant_fonffpart.gif

Gravity is infinite and the weakest force, meaning that if two objects, just two, that had mass were the only things in the universe, no matter how far apart, they would attract each other due to gravity, but incredibly slow depending on distance due to the strength of gravity. So that must mean there is a particle that carries out its' will, correct? Not that we know of, but it could be possible.

Due to the actual abilities of gravity, like becoming weaker the farther apart per square of a unit of distance (i.e., 1/r 2), we can conclude that the graviton could and must have ZERO mass. We have concluded this because if a photon, electromagnetic carrier, had mass, it would completely change the formulas exponent into something else entirely;. At the same time, that may not seem like a grand deal; we know a lot about these forces, and that formula is so incredibly accurate and precise, changing it would break everything. So with this, gravitons have no mass, and therefore if they have no mass, they move at the speed of light, like photons.

General relativity may have given us some insight into this idea, as a tensor (an algebraic object that describes a multilinear relationship between sets of algebraic objects related to a vector space) of rank two (two rotation matrices) is ideally a source of gravitation, or that the particle has a spin of two. Again, a second conclusion to this is that a graviton is completely massless and spin two-particle, one of a kind; if you observe something like that, boom, you've found it. 

Credit and found: https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FTensor&psig=AOvVaw3udhVPQpzS-oAXn5UmyhcF&ust=1622293146844000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCKi9h4m37PACFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD

Now we know how it could work and what it would possibly do, so why can't we observe it to confirm it? Its unique abilities are our downfall again, as gravity is lengthy but weak, meaning it has to be small. To put this into perspective, the force between the electron and proton in a hydrogen atom is 10^39 times stronger than gravity in the same example (this is acted by electromagnetism, of course), meaning it's really, like fragile, that's a 39 zero difference mind you. You can observe the strength difference directly, like holding a magnet with metal, see how it doesn't obey gravity anymore because of the stronger force? Exactly.

Credit and found: https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theifod.com%2Fthe-four-forces-in-the-universe-and-possibly-a-fifth%2F&psig=AOvVaw3M9vtSNMu3dj_8m93Q_8dy&ust=1622289327550000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCMiR--uo7PACFQAAAAAdAAAAABAI

This tells us one thing, gravitons if they exist, are so fragile and small that they would be practically impossible to detect. Again, humans always find a way, and we make a lot of unique ideas and stuff, meaning it could be possible to detect a really unique graviton if possible manipulation were to occur. Still, nevertheless, we aren't there yet. 

Quantum mechanics tell us a lot, but one thing we can pull from it is every particle is a wave of the vibrating type. QM also tells us that there are many dimensions, so it could be possible that these particles could be so small that they could go into different dimensions, possibly so small that they could vibrate in different dimensions or wrap around them like a tight piece of jewelry. So if we have multiple dimensions, that would bring in more dilemmas, as now we have possibilities for gravitons that don't exist in our current dimension. Now the creation of different gravitons (different to us at least) is like "taking a sine wave and wrapping it around a cylinder" (Lincoln para. 11), but this may even have a problem, as the vibrations have mass as well. They would need manipulation to fit their surroundings, creating more problems. 

Credit and found: https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.investopedia.com%2Fterms%2Fs%2Fsinewave.asp&psig=AOvVaw31J8a4QnSmi4_fTrsfrIG4&ust=1622293020812000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCLCK38y27PACFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD

Gravity is one of the most known/unknown forces out there, as it's all around us, the weakest, but we don't know jack squat about it. Proposing the theory of gravitons and fitting it as our own standard model of this new particle would solve many problems, but who wouldn't say that it would create more problems than it solves. 

Final Conclusion:

Personally, I believe there is a sort of "graviton" out there, and since gravity is the weakest, maybe it isn't the particle we "oh know so much" about; instead, it could be so weak and small is something else entirely. But this decision is for you to decide UNTIL its existence has been proven. In the comments of this article: Do you think Gravitons exist? Why or why not?

Sources: 

Large help and paraphrased from: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/what-are-gravitons/

2. https://inquiriesaboutus.blogspot.com/2020/11/matter-just-matters-what-exactly-is.html
3. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/teachers/activities/3012_elegant_02.html
4. https://www.space.com/four-fundamental-forces.html
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graviton#:~:text=In%20theories%20of%20quantum%20gravity,with%20renormalization%20in%20general%20relativity.
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tensor
7. https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/earth-atmospheric-and-planetary-sciences/12-108-structure-of-earth-materials-fall-2004/lecture-notes/lec14.pdf

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