In science, graviton is a hypothetical force carrier, of mass zero and spin two, posited as the exchange force particle operating in the mechanism of the gravity.
Etymology
The term “graviton” was introduced in 1934 by Russian physicists Dmitrii Blokhintsev and F. M. Gal'perin who, in their “Neutrino Hypothesis and Conservation of Energy”, stated: [1]
“The comparison displayed above indicated that the graviton and the neutrino have much in common. This probably testifies that in general the highly improbable process of gravitation radiation becomes practically observable in beta-decay. If the neutrino turns out to be the graviton this would mean that temporary physics had approached the limits beyond which there would be no present insurmountable barrier between gravitation and electromagnetism. Due to theoretical considerations it is hard to identify gravitons with the neutrion since it is hard to admit that they have the same spin ½ as the neutrino. In this respect gravitons have much more in common with light quanta. It is impossible, however, to totally rule out a theoretical possibility of their identification. So fra it is much more correct to regard the neutrino as an independent type of particle.”
In 1959, Paul Dirac, in his annual American Physical Society lecture, announced that just as James Maxwell’s field theory of electromagnetism predicts the existence of electromagnetic waves, including visible light, and that—according to Planck-Einstein views—the energy of the field comes in quanta, known as photons, that Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity predicts the existence of gravitational waves, according to which, by extension, the energy of the field also should come in quanta, which Dirac referred to as “gravitons”, in a reintroduction terminology manner. [2]
Humans
In 1992, Rush Dozier, applied the graviton theory to humans, with the following statements: [3]
“We exchange gravitons not just with the earth but with all other objects in the universe. Massive objects such as stars and planets are intense sources of gravitons. Less massive objects, such as human beings, produce only a glimmer of gravitons in comparison.”
References
1. (a) Blokhintsev, Dmitrii I. and Gal'perin, F. M. (1934). "Gipoteza neitrino i zakon sokhraneniya energii" (Neutrino Hypothesis and Conservation of Energy). Pod Znamenem Marxisma (Under the Banner of Marxism), 6: 147–157.
(b) Stachel, John. (2004). “Quantum Field Theory and Space-Time”, in: Conceptual Foundations of Quantum Field Theory (editor: Tian Yu Cao) (V:Introduction, pgs. 166-75; pg. 169). Cambridge University Press.
2. Farmelo, Graham. (2009). The Strangest Man: the Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Mystic of the Atom (pgs. 367-68). Basic Books.
3. Dozier, Rush W. (1992). Codes of Evolution: the Synaptic Language Revealing the Secrets of Matter, Life, and Thought (pg. 38). Crown Publishers.
External links
● Graviton – Wikipedia.
