Role of mass and quantum gravitational effects in friction?

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IonReactor
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Friction. Quantum Gravity?
Friction is commonly thought to arise from the electromagnetic forces of the atoms at the boundary between two surfaces in contact. However it occurs to me that, in addition to charge quanta, there are also mass quanta present in this system and they could very well play a role.

Now, I'm just a grad student, this isn't my field, and I'm not proposing that I have a theory about quantum gravity that relates to friction. It's just a thought that I had and I would be very excited to hear the thoughts of anyone here who has some expertise or insight on this idea or who has thought about it before.
 
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PeterDonis said:
What do you mean by "mass quanta"?
I don't have a precise definition. I realize my original post is incorrect because of this lack of precision and that it's entirely possible that "mass quanta" actually aren't present in this system.

What I really meant was that I was assuming that the mass of the atoms coupled to the small-scale of the system would create a fertile ground for quantum gravitational effects.
 
IonReactor said:
I don't have a precise definition.

Then I don't see how we can have a useful discussion.

IonReactor said:
I realize my original post is incorrect because of this lack of precision and that it's entirely possible that "mass quanta" actually aren't present in this system.

Since you can't even define what you mean by "mass quanta", I don't see how the question is even well-defined. It is like asking if there are florbs present in the system. How would one even go about trying to answer?

IonReactor said:
What I really meant was that I was assuming that the mass of the atoms coupled to the small-scale of the system would create a fertile ground for quantum gravitational effects.

Then why go off into the weeds about "mass quanta"?

As far as quantum gravitational effects are concerned, gravity is really, really, really, really weak on the scale of atoms and molecules. You should be able to calculate, say, the gravitational interaction between two atoms at typical inter-atomic distances, and compare it to the electrostatic interaction between them. You will see that the difference is huge. And any quantum corrections to gravity at this scale would be even smaller.
 
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