The Mystery: The Causes of Gravity Explained

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the question of what produces gravity, exploring various theories and concepts related to gravity, including general relativity, mass, energy, and hypothetical particles like gravitons. Participants engage in both technical explanations and conceptual clarifications, examining the nature of gravity from different perspectives.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Technical explanation
  • Conceptual clarification
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants suggest that the general theory of relativity describes gravity as a result of the curvature of spacetime caused by mass and energy.
  • Others argue that gravity is a fact of the topology of the universe, questioning the need for deeper explanations.
  • There are mentions of the stress-energy tensor as a key component in understanding how mass and energy influence spacetime.
  • Some participants introduce the concept of gravitons as potential mediators of gravity, but debate their role and existence.
  • There are discussions about the self-interacting nature of gravity and whether gravitons could interact with each other.
  • Several participants express uncertainty about the ultimate source of gravitation and the ongoing search for answers, including the role of the Large Hadron Collider in exploring these questions.
  • Some participants highlight the distinction between gravitational waves and hypothetical gravitons, noting the lack of solid theoretical grounding for the latter.
  • There are inquiries into the relationship between gravity and other forces, such as magnetism, and the nature of gravitational fields.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants do not reach a consensus on the ultimate cause of gravity, with multiple competing views and ongoing debates about the nature of gravitational interactions and the role of theoretical constructs like gravitons.

Contextual Notes

Some discussions touch on unresolved aspects of gravitational theory, including the dependence on definitions and the speculative nature of certain hypotheses, such as the existence of gravitons.

Who May Find This Useful

This discussion may be of interest to those exploring theoretical physics, general relativity, and the fundamental nature of gravity, as well as individuals curious about ongoing research in particle physics and cosmology.

SaqibAhmed
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What Produces Gravity??

What produces gravity?? Is there any specific theory for this?
 
Astronomy news on Phys.org


The general theory of relativity.
 


SaqibAhmed said:
What produces gravity?? Is there any specific theory for this?

You may want to start where Einstein did, with his 1905 paper of Special Relativity: http://www.fourmilab.ch/etexts/einstein/specrel/www/

Then from there consider, as 16180339887 said, the General Theory of Relativity. In that theory, there is the Stress-Energy Tensor (or Momentum Energy Tensor), which describes the feedback of mass warping spacetime, and following it geometrically in turn. In GR, gravity is not a force, but the geometry of spacetime. You might find the Wikipedia article useful, but I would still consider the Special case first.
 


16180339887 said:
The general theory of relativity.

The General Theory of Relativity produces books and, unfortunately, Bohr's theories--or was that the Special Theory of Relativity?

Gravity is a fact of the topology of the universe. Would you ask why there are hills?
 


AC130Nav said:
Gravity is a fact of the topology of the universe. Would you ask why there are hills?

Sure. There is a lot of interesting physics going on in hill formation. :smile:

Bad analogy...
 


The short answer is . . . mass. What causes mass is a different berry on a different bush. Most scientiscts still favor the higgs boson. LHC may provide a definitive answer to that hypothesis.
 


mass or energy bends space-time , a photon has a gravitational field
 


cragar said:
mass or energy bends space-time , a photon has a gravitational field

Not just mass and energy, but the full set of components of the Stress/Momentum Energy Tensor.
 


What about the speculated gravitons? Don't they "produce" somehow gravity? (by existence of mass ofc).
 
  • #10


KingAntikrist said:
What about the speculated gravitons? Don't they "produce" somehow gravity? (by existence of mass ofc).

Even if they exist, they would be the quanta of gravity, mediating interaction, not the cause. Photons are the quanta of the EM spectrum, but they do not "cause" it.
 
  • #11


nismaratwork said:
Even if they exist, they would be the quanta of gravity, mediating interaction, not the cause. Photons are the quanta of the EM spectrum, but they do not "cause" it.

Doesn't relativity say that gravity is a self interacting phenomenon ,
Is a graviton an excitation of the field , couldn't gravitons interact with each other ,
Isn't a gravitational wave affected by gravity .
 
  • #12


cragar said:
Doesn't relativity say that gravity is a self interacting phenomenon ,
Is a graviton an excitation of the field , couldn't gravitons interact with each other ,
Isn't a gravitational wave affected by gravity .

I understand your point about the waves, but how would the quanta of gravity (whatever that would be) self-interact? Unlike gravitational waves, there isn't solid theoretical grounding for gravitons, so I'm not sure I can adequately answer your concerns... maybe others here can. Sorry Crager.
 
  • #13


Why does every one spell my name crager and not cragar , I think there some threads that talk about gravitons interacting , Wouldn't a graviton posses energy .
so why wouldn't this energy be affected by other energy .
 
  • #14


Einstein, in fact, predicted gravitational radiation was self interacting - as well as em radiation.
 
  • #15


cragar said:
Why does every one spell my name crager and not cragar , I think there some threads that talk about gravitons interacting , Wouldn't a graviton posses energy .
so why wouldn't this energy be affected by other energy .

Hmmm, I never noticed that about your name until you pointed it out, but that isn't atyptical: people work with their expectations.

So, cragAr, I don't know about gravitons beyond their predicted spin, and what Chronos already said about gravitational radiation... although I think Einstein was thinking of waves and not quanta, maybe it is both. The waves would have to propagate through quanta if gravity is quantized, and if one self-interacts, then the quanta must to allow that to occur. It's logical, but gravitons are still completely hypothetical, whereas gravitational waves are probably on the cusp of confirmation.
 
  • #16


The graviton! Muah haha! Seriously...if it existed. Or at least if we could prove its existence. That seems to be the whole point to building the Large Hadron Collider.http://www.star-signs.org/compatible-star-signs.htm .to figure out and prove what keeps everything in place in the universe. :) A good way to do more research is to learn about the Large Hadron Collider and also to delve into the current String Theories.
 
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  • #17


SaqibAhmed said:
What produces gravity?? Is there any specific theory for this?

We don't know the ultimate source of gravitation, and the answers to your questions will have several Nobel Prizes attached to them. Regardless of what gravitation is or what produces it, we know very well by now how it works. As many others have mentioned already, GR is our most advanced and reliable theory of gravitation, which is described as an effect resulting from the geometry of spacetime.
 
  • #18


untiltwilight said:
The graviton! Muah haha! Seriously...if it existed. Or at least if we could prove its existence. That seems to be the whole point to building the Large Hadron Collider.http://www.star-signs.org/compatible-star-signs.htm .to figure out and prove what keeps everything in place in the universe. :) A good way to do more research is to learn about the Large Hadron Collider and also to delve into the current String Theories.

I would say the LHC has many purposes, but if there is a single "selling point" it's the search for the Higgs Boson, not the graviton. As for string theory, it needs a lot of work yet before something like the LHC is dedicated to searching for what could only be equivocal evidence of it.
 
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  • #19


It is just there.

AC130Nav said:
Gravity is a fact of the topology of the universe. Would you ask why there are hills?

Weinberg would disagree with you.
 
  • #20


SaqibAhmed said:
What produces gravity?? Is there any specific theory for this?

wikipedia --> gravity

read up
 
  • #21


what is mean by gravity?
in Earth all we know gravity means some attraction to between objects.
Earth has magnetic field?. then wats diff of magnetic force.
 
  • #22


A Lorentzian transform refresher is recommended.
 
  • #23


SaqibAhmed said:
What produces gravity?? Is there any specific theory for this?
In general relativity the components of the stress-energy tensor (or also called the energy-momentum tensor) determine the spacetime curvature of a point in spacetime. In general relativity gravity is not a force but instead expressed as curvature of spacetime.
 
  • #24


SaqibAhmed said:
What produces gravity?? Is there any specific theory for this?
This link should help to explain the "relativity" aspect of what they are talking about in laymans terms. It's also fantastically entertaining to watch.

Elegant Universe - Einsteins Relativity, with a bit on Newtonian gravity
 
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  • #25


SaqibAhmed said:
What produces gravity?? Is there any specific theory for this?

very simple answer: gravity is caused by the warping/ distortion of space by the mass of an object. the specific theory on this is the General Theory of Reletivity
 
  • #26


ok why does mass or energy distort space , and can a G field create another G field .
 

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