Comment Re:Where does relativity fall short? (Score 1) 326
The problem of incorporating gravity with QM is not a shortcoming of special relativity but of general relativity. (QM doesn't have a problem with the macroscopic world, it just isn't necessary because quantum effects in this realm are very very small).
QM has no problem with special relativistic effects. This is the subject of Quantum Field Theory. Quantum Theory though does in fact have some fundamental problems with gravity in particular and general relativity in general.
As far as gravity goes the problem is in the inability to find the virtual particle that mediates the force. In E&M the photon mediates the force. The strong nuclear force is mediated by mesons. The graviton has been postulated to be the mediating virtual particle but one has never been detected. This is actually an indication of a deeper problem - that of quantizing the field.
All of the the other fields can be quantized because the source of the field occurs in discrete amounts. For example the charge of an electron is the smallest charge anything can have, any charged object has a charge that is an integer multiple of the charge of an electron. If General Relativity is correct then we cannot quantize the gravitational field because it does not actually "emanate" from an object but is in fact the topology of spacetime due to the prescence of energy/mass. In order to quantize the gravitational field then me must quantize space and time itself. This would put a lower limit on length and time scales. Which is actually correct I am not going to hazard a guess, however this problem makes quantum theory and GR contradictory.
Personally I expect Quantum Theory isn't quite right, although it works quite well. I base this on the fact that Quantum Theory is based on a linear differential equation. I expect this is actually just the linear term of a nonlinear differential equation, but the non linear terms in all cases we have ever witnessed are incredibly small compared to the linear term. I have absolutely no evidence for this it is just a hunch.
Special Relativity unlike General Relativity is not fundamentally contradictory with any other theory I know of (unless you count newtonian mechanics which we know to be wrong). I already mentioned Quantum field theory as a combination of Quantum theory and SR. In addition SR is inherently compatible with E&M. E&M is goverend by Maxwells equations which are extremely acurate and have never (to my knowledge) failed. Maxwells equations are invariant under the lorenz transformations of special relativity, but are not invariant under the galilean transformations of newtonian mechanics. Let me explain this another way - When you change reference frames we must transform the equations that describe the dynamics of the system. Special relativity uses a lorenz transformation, whereas newtonian mechanics uses a galilean transformation. Maxwells equations have the same form when a lorenz transformation is performed but are different when we do a galilean transformation (which would imply the laws of physics are different depending on your reference frame). This is a relatively unknown, but very significant triumph of Special Relativity (theoretically and historically - Einstein noticed the lorenz invariance in Maxwells equations which led him to believe that is how transformations from reference frame to reference frame should be made).
As far as the experiment mentioned in the article there are going to be both SR and GR effects since the ISS is a non inertial reference frame. IMO and descrepancy in the result compared to theory could be in a problem with either theory, it IMO cannot show there is a problem with SR, it can only conclude there is a problem with one or the other. My guess is that the researchers will get the predicted result within experimental error.
QM has no problem with special relativistic effects. This is the subject of Quantum Field Theory. Quantum Theory though does in fact have some fundamental problems with gravity in particular and general relativity in general.
As far as gravity goes the problem is in the inability to find the virtual particle that mediates the force. In E&M the photon mediates the force. The strong nuclear force is mediated by mesons. The graviton has been postulated to be the mediating virtual particle but one has never been detected. This is actually an indication of a deeper problem - that of quantizing the field.
All of the the other fields can be quantized because the source of the field occurs in discrete amounts. For example the charge of an electron is the smallest charge anything can have, any charged object has a charge that is an integer multiple of the charge of an electron. If General Relativity is correct then we cannot quantize the gravitational field because it does not actually "emanate" from an object but is in fact the topology of spacetime due to the prescence of energy/mass. In order to quantize the gravitational field then me must quantize space and time itself. This would put a lower limit on length and time scales. Which is actually correct I am not going to hazard a guess, however this problem makes quantum theory and GR contradictory.
Personally I expect Quantum Theory isn't quite right, although it works quite well. I base this on the fact that Quantum Theory is based on a linear differential equation. I expect this is actually just the linear term of a nonlinear differential equation, but the non linear terms in all cases we have ever witnessed are incredibly small compared to the linear term. I have absolutely no evidence for this it is just a hunch.
Special Relativity unlike General Relativity is not fundamentally contradictory with any other theory I know of (unless you count newtonian mechanics which we know to be wrong). I already mentioned Quantum field theory as a combination of Quantum theory and SR. In addition SR is inherently compatible with E&M. E&M is goverend by Maxwells equations which are extremely acurate and have never (to my knowledge) failed. Maxwells equations are invariant under the lorenz transformations of special relativity, but are not invariant under the galilean transformations of newtonian mechanics. Let me explain this another way - When you change reference frames we must transform the equations that describe the dynamics of the system. Special relativity uses a lorenz transformation, whereas newtonian mechanics uses a galilean transformation. Maxwells equations have the same form when a lorenz transformation is performed but are different when we do a galilean transformation (which would imply the laws of physics are different depending on your reference frame). This is a relatively unknown, but very significant triumph of Special Relativity (theoretically and historically - Einstein noticed the lorenz invariance in Maxwells equations which led him to believe that is how transformations from reference frame to reference frame should be made).
As far as the experiment mentioned in the article there are going to be both SR and GR effects since the ISS is a non inertial reference frame. IMO and descrepancy in the result compared to theory could be in a problem with either theory, it IMO cannot show there is a problem with SR, it can only conclude there is a problem with one or the other. My guess is that the researchers will get the predicted result within experimental error.
