| Abstract from DBPedia | Quantum gravity (QG) is a field of theoretical physics that seeks to describe gravity according to the principles of quantum mechanics; it deals with environments in which neither gravitational nor quantum effects can be ignored, such as in the vicinity of black holes or similar compact astrophysical objects, such as neutron stars. Three of the four fundamental forces of physics are described within the framework of quantum mechanics and quantum field theory. The current understanding of the fourth force, gravity, is based on Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity, which is formulated within the entirely different framework of classical physics. However, that description is incomplete: describing the gravitational field of a black hole in the general theory of relativity leads physical quantities, such as the spacetime curvature, to diverge at the center of the black hole. This signals the breakdown of the general theory of relativity and the need for a theory that goes beyond general relativity into the quantum realm. At distances very close to the center of the black hole (closer than the Planck length), quantum fluctuations of spacetime are expected to play an important role. To describe these quantum effects a theory of quantum gravity is needed. Such a theory should allow the description to be extended closer to the center and might even allow an understanding of physics at the center of a black hole. On more formal grounds, one can argue that a classical system cannot consistently be coupled to a quantum one. The field of quantum gravity is actively developing, and theorists are exploring a variety of approaches to the problem of quantum gravity, the most popular being M-theory and loop quantum gravity. All of these approaches aim to describe the quantum behavior of the gravitational field. This does not necessarily include unifying all fundamental interactions into a single mathematical framework. However, many approaches to quantum gravity, such as string theory, try to develop a framework that describes all fundamental forces. Such a theory is often referred to as a theory of everything. Others, such as loop quantum gravity, make no such attempt; instead, they make an effort to quantize the gravitational field while it is kept separate from the other forces. One of the difficulties of formulating a quantum gravity theory is that quantum gravitational effects only appear at length scales near the Planck scale, around 10−35 meters, a scale far smaller, and hence only accessible with far higher energies, than those currently available in high energy particle accelerators. Therefore, physicists lack experimental data which could distinguish between the competing theories which have been proposed and thus thought experiment approaches are suggested as a testing tool for these theories.Furthermore, in the field of quantum gravity there are several open questions - e.g., it is not known how spin of elementary particles sources gravity, and thought experiments could provide a pathway to explore possible resolutions to these questions, even in the absence of lab experiments or physical observations.量子重力理論（りょうしじゅうりょくりろん、quantum gravity theory）は、重力相互作用（重力）を量子化した理論である。単に量子重力（りょうしじゅうりょく：Quantum Gravity(QG), Quantum Gravitation）または重力の量子論（Quantum Theory of Gravity）などとも呼ばれる。 ユダヤ系ロシア人のマトベイ・ブロンスタインがパイオニアとされる。一般相対性理論と量子力学の双方を統一する理論と期待されている。物理学の基礎概念である時間、空間、物質、力を統一的に理解するための鍵であり、物理学における最重要課題の一つと言われている。 量子重力理論は現時点ではまったく未完成の未知の理論である。量子重力を考える上で最大の問題点はその指針とすべき基本的な原理がよく分かっていないということである。そもそも重力は自然界に存在する四つの力（基本相互作用）の中で最も弱い。従って、量子化された重力が関係していると考えられる現象が現在到達できる技術レベルでは観測できないためである。 (Source: http://dbpedia.org/resource/Quantum_gravity) |
