Narrow Results

We present the quantum spin as a novel test tool for probing directly the Planck scale space–time foam of quantum gravity. Quantum fluctuations of spatial support for the electric vector associated with the spin-one photon affect its polarization sufficiently to allow us to gain deep insights and unprecedented constraints on the most important and fundamental aspect of quantum gravity — the fluctuating structure of space–time with a Planck scale three-dimensional web. We show that the survival of strong polarization of X-rays and gamma rays from the Crab Nebula rejects the conventional space–time foam at Planck length scale and constrains the microscopic scale of quantum gravitational fluctuations to below 2 × 10^-8l_P.

A solution to the gravitational field equations based on a nonsymmetric metric tensor is examined. Unlike Einstein's interpretation of electromagnetism, or Moffat's generalized gravity, it is shown that the nonsymmetric part of the metric tensor is the potential of the spin field, and its intimate connection to string theory is established. This formulation solves the longstanding problem of electromagnetism and torsion, naturally showing how electromagnetism, through its intrinsic spin, can create torsion.

After reviewing the meaning of various equivalence principles and the structure of electrodynamics, we give a fairly detailed account of the construction of the light cone and a core metric from the equivalence principle for photons (no birefringence, no polarization rotation and no amplification/attenuation in propagation) in the framework of linear electrodynamics using cosmic connections/observations as empirical support. The cosmic nonbirefringent propagation of photons independent of energy and polarization verifies the Galileo Equivalence Principle (Universality of Propagation) for photons/electromagnetic wave packets in spacetime. This nonbirefringence constrains the spacetime constitutive tensor to high precision to a core metric form with an axion degree and a dilaton degree of freedom. Thus comes the metric with axion and dilation. Constraints on axion and dilaton from astrophysical/cosmic propagation are reviewed. Eötvös-type experiments, Hughes–Drever-type experiments, redshift experiments then constrain and tie this core metric to agree with the matter metric, and hence a unique physical metric and universality of metrology. We summarize these experiments and review how the Galileo equivalence principle constrains the Einstein Equivalence Principle (EEP) theoretically. In local physics this physical metric gives the Lorentz/Poincaré covariance. Understanding that the metric and EEP come from the vacuum as a medium of electrodynamics in the linear regime, efforts to actively look for potential effects beyond this linear scheme are warranted. We emphasize the importance of doing Eötvös-type experiments or other type experiments using polarized bodies/polarized particles. We review the theoretical progress on the issue of gyrogravitational ratio for fundamental particles and update the experimental progress on the measurements of possible long range/intermediate range spin–spin, spin–monopole and spin–cosmos interactions.

Well known weakness of gravity in particle physics is an illusion caused by underestimation of the role of spin in gravity. Relativistic rotation is inseparable from spin, which for elementary particles is extremely high and exceeds mass on 20–22 orders (in units $c=G=m=\hslash =1$). Such a huge spin generates frame-dragging that distorts space much stronger than mass, and effective scale of gravitational interaction is shifted from Planck to Compton distances. We show that compatibility between gravity and quantum theory can be achieved without modifications of Einstein–Maxwell equations, by coupling to a supersymmetric Higgs model of symmetry breaking and forming a nonperturbative super-bag solution, which generates a gravity-free Compton zone necessary for consistent work of quantum theory. Super-bag is naturally upgraded to Wess–Zumino supersymmetric QED model, forming a bridge to perturbative formalism of conventional QED.

Torsion is a geometrical object, required by quantum mechanics in curved spacetime, which may naturally solve fundamental problems of general theory of relativity and cosmology. The black-hole cosmology, resulting from torsion, could be a scenario uniting the ideas of the big bounce and inflation, which were the subject of a recent debate of renowned cosmologists.