From B Modes to Quantum Gravity and Unification of Forces

Abstract

It is commonly anticipated that gravity is subject to the standard principles of quantum mechanics. Yet some (including Einstein) have questioned that presumption, whose empirical basis is weak. Indeed, recently Freeman Dyson has emphasized that no conventional experiment is capable of detecting individual gravitons. However, as we describe, if inflation occurred, the Universe, by acting as an ideal graviton amplifier, affords such access. It produces a classical signal, in the form of macroscopic gravitational waves, in response to spontaneous (not induced) emission of gravitons. Thus recent BICEP2 observations of polarization in the cosmic microwave background will, if confirmed, provide empirical evidence for the quantization of gravity. Their details also support quantitative ideas concerning the unification of strong, electromagnetic, and weak forces, and of all these with gravity.

arXiv comment4 pages, no figures. v2: minor typos corrected, reference added. v3: very minor typo corrected. Winning entry in Gravity Research Foundation essay competition

References in corpus (5)

• Signature of Gravity Waves in Polarization of the Microwave Background
• A Probe of Primordial Gravity Waves and Vorticity
• CMBPol Mission Concept Study: Probing Inflation with CMB Polarization
• Grand Unification, Gravitational Waves, and the Cosmic Microwave Background Anisotropy
• Using Cosmology to Establish the Quantization of Gravity

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Signatures of the Quantization of Gravity at Gravitational Wave Detectors
• Dark matter as Planck relics without too exotic hypotheses
• Inflation without quantum gravity
• Calibration Method and Uncertainty for the Primordial Inflation Explorer (PIXIE)
• Mitigating Bias in CMB B-modes from Foreground Cleaning Using a Moment Expansion
• Will Gravitational Waves Discover the First Extra-Galactic Planetary System?
• Hessian and graviton propagator of the proper vertex
• Entanglement and quantum teleportation under superposed gravitational fields