Quantum Gravity lacks symmetry
When gravity is combined with quantum mechanics, to simulate a quantum theory of gravity, symmetry is not possible new research suggests.
A quantum theory of gravity — the last piece of a puzzle to a universal theory of everything — has evaded scientists including the late Stephen Hawking, for decades. But that hasn’t stopped researchers from performing calculations and simulations that show us what properties and elements such a theory should display.
A new piece of research that does just this has shown that when theories of gravity and quantum mechanics come together, the principle of symmetry — the idea the laws of physics appear the same in different inertial frames — is threatened.
Hirosi Ooguri, Director of the Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe, and one of the new paper’s authors, explains: “Many physicists believe that there must a beautiful set of laws in Nature and that one way to quantify the beauty is by symmetry. Some of the symmetries may be hidden in our world, but they should manifest themselves if we look at Nature at a more fundamental level.
“We showed that this expectation is wrong once we take into account the gravity.”
