Are Gravity Waves Distortions of Space-Time That Create Gravitons?

Gal
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If a mass bends space-time somehow and then I nudge it, the bend changes. This distortion of space-time bend is supposedly expanding at the speed of light and could be called a "gravity wave" that carries energy. Why is this wave not the distortion that creates a "graviton" like EM and photons?
 
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Gal said:
Why is this wave not the distortion that creates a "graviton" like EM and photons?

Why do you phrase this in the negative?

We presume that gravity is quantized, although we currently don't have a working theory of quantum gravity. "Graviton" is our name for the quantum of the gravitational field.
 
Gal said:
If a mass bends space-time somehow and then I nudge it, the bend changes. This distortion of space-time bend is supposedly expanding at the speed of light and could be called a "gravity wave" that carries energy. Why is this wave not the distortion that creates a "graviton" like EM and photons?
Actually it is. Roughly speaking, a quantum description of gravity wave is called graviton.
 
Demystifier said:
Actually it is. Roughly speaking, a quantum description of gravity wave is called graviton.
But is space-time a quantum field? Do gravitons theoretically excite this "field"?
 
Gal said:
But is space-time a quantum field? Do gravitons theoretically excite this "field"?
The metric of space-time can be treated as a quantum field, in which case gravitons are excitations of this field.
 

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