A Simple Experiment Tests Quantum Gravity

A new tabletop experiment, which any laboratory or classroom can reproduce, indicates a link between gravity and quantum mechanics.  This research began in cosmology, a universe of radius R = ct, where c is speed of light and t is age of the cosmos.  Gravity then requires that GM = tc^3, where M is mass and G is the gravitational constant.  In Planck units the two expressions combine as M = R = t, hinting that these microscopic units are fundamental.  

The Planck time and length are too small to currently measure, but the Planck mass 2.2 x 10^[-8] kg is a visible quantity similar to a flea’s egg.  We place two spherical masses on a level low-friction surface, grounded to prevent electrostatic attraction, within a vacuum chamber.  Between control masses larger than Planck mass, we can readily observe gravitational interaction.  After many trials, no attraction can be detected between sub-Planck masses.

A quantized gravitational mass is also indicated by weighings of the International Prototype Kilogram.  Measurements of the IPK are inaccurate by approximately one Planck mass, indicating that mass is quantized at the Planck scale.  Two tiny objects dropped from a tower fall toward Earth because Earth’s large mass causes curvature of Space/Time, but two sub-Planck masses do not attract one another.  A quantized mass is also indicated in the scale of living cells, most of which do not exceed the Planck mass.

We invite other laboratories to repeat the experiment.  Trials may also be performed in the microgravity environment of space.  The data shows a link between the large-scale universe of Relativity and the microscopic world of quantum values, with applications to the scale of living cells.  This experiment may be a window to a quantized gravitational mass.