Quantum Violation of Equivalency Principle

[sanman]

Is it possible that the Equivalency Principle is violated at the quantum level?

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/25331/

Or is this just some kind of trick, like dividing by zero?

 

[K^2]

It's probably going to be up to Quantum Gravity to answer this question.

 

[haael]

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/25331/

Isn't that just a modification of gravitational force? Instead of varying gravitational mass, we could just add a force correction, that will do the right thing.

 

[nismaratwork]

It's probably going to be up to Quantum Gravity to answer this question.

For now, it's as good as dividing by 0 however, to use the OP's metaphor, don't you think? It's just, "not covered in the material" that currently exists, leaving only speculation and guesses until the next round of predictive theories comes around.

 

[JesseM]

For now, it's as good as dividing by 0 however, to use the OP's metaphor, don't you think? It's just, "not covered in the material" that currently exists, leaving only speculation and guesses until the next round of predictive theories comes around.

The article claims that the experiment could probably be done within a few years, so it doesn't seem to be a purely theoretical issue. I'd guess the authors are claiming there's some experiment that could be done in the 1G gravity at Earth's surface that would give different results than what quantum field theory would predict would be seen by an observer accelerating at 1G in flat spacetime.

 

[stevenb]

I can't help but wonder how significant this really is. Recently, there have been demonstrations of pseudo-magnetic-monopoles in special materials. These are analogous to hole-electron pairs in a semiconductor since they occur as north/south pairs as separate entities, hence they are not real particles of the same status as real magnetic-monopoles, which, if they were proved to exist, would have major theoretical implications. Isn't this idea of confining particles in boxes etc., to separate inertial and gravitational mass, just a similar trick? That is, one creates pseudo-effects that are interesting and important discoveries, but not of fundamental significance?