Do Quantum Particles Generate Gravity Waves?

[brianhurren]

when anything moves it displaces space and generates gravity waves, So does this also happen at the quantum level? quarks giggering about due to uncertainty in there possition (at least I think that what uncertainty does acording to explanations in popular science books.) gluons zapping about keeping nucleons together. does this activity generate ripples in spacetime?

 

[Bill_K]

when anything moves it displaces space and generates gravity waves,

That depends on how it moves. A massive object sailing by at constant speed does not generate gravitational waves, for example.

So does this also happen at the quantum level? quarks giggering about due to uncertainty in there possition (at least I think that what uncertainty does acording to explanations in popular science books.) gluons zapping about keeping nucleons together. does this activity generate ripples in spacetime?

It happens at the quantum level, but not for the examples you give, which are stationary states. Uncertainty in position means just that, it does not mean the particle is jiggering about! Yes, the electrons in an atom do not have a well-defined position, but that does not mean they move back and forth in orbits. And just as they do not generate electromagnetic radiation, they do not generate gravitational waves either.

 

[brianhurren]

so how would particles generate waves in spacetime at the quantum level?

 

[Bill_K]

so how would particles generate waves in spacetime at the quantum level?

I hope you understand that, due to the incredible weakness of the gravitational interaction, these examples are hypothetical. They've never been observed, and probably never will be, but in principle they are possible.

a) Any particle reaction may, in addition to the other products, emit a graviton.
Such as, p + p → p + p + g or n → p + e + ¯ν + g

b) A nuclear transition. Just as a nucleus may emit a gamma ray, subject to certain selection rules on ΔL and ΔP, it could, in principle, emit a graviton. A photon carries spin 1 with odd parity, while a graviton is spin 2 with even parity, so the selection rules are not the same.

 

[kurros]

It happens at the quantum level, but not for the examples you give, which are stationary states. Uncertainty in position means just that, it does not mean the particle is jiggering about! Yes, the electrons in an atom do not have a well-defined position, but that does not mean they move back and forth in orbits. And just as they do not generate electromagnetic radiation, they do not generate gravitational waves either.

Slightly off-topic: It is interesting isn't it? It does seem wrong to say the electrons in orbits are moving about, yet, one *can* compute probability currents, and vorticities and orbital angular momentum and so on, which certainly make it *seem* like some sort of funny motion is occurring. I don't know that I am totally convinced that simply because a state is in a time-independent state that no motion is occurring in it. Ignoring the small scale details, a stationary wave in a river is time independent, as is say a sphere rotating on some axis.

Of course, a charged rotating sphere doesn't emit either electromagnetic radiation nor gravitational waves, despite that we agree it is "moving".

 

[brianhurren]

well where i am going with this is. could gravity be caused by quantum level viberations in spacetime that arise from the activity of particles. for instance, say you have a beem of light traveling through space, the light causes spacetime to viberate like a bow drawn across a violin string. these waves carry gravitons. the gravatons are phonons...just a wild thought.

 

[ZapperZ]

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