At long last, a unified theory combining gravity with the other fundamental forces—electromagnetism and the strong and weak nuclear forces—is within reach. Bringing gravity into the fold has been the goal of generations of physicists, who have struggled to reconcile the incompatibility of two cornerstones of modern physics: quantum field theory and Einstein's theory of gravity.

Although the theory is promising, the duo point out that they have not yet completed its proof. The theory uses a technical procedure known as renormalization, a mathematical way of dealing with infinities that show up in the calculations.

So far Partanen and Tulkki have shown that this works up to a certain point—for so-called ‘first order’ terms—but they need to make sure the infinities can be eliminated throughout the entire calculation.

“If renormalization doesn’t work for higher order terms, you’ll get infinite results. So it’s vital to show that this renormalization continues to work,” explains Tulkki. “We still have to make a complete proof, but we believe it’s very likely we’ll succeed.”

  • corvus@lemmy.mlEnglish
    311·
    10 hours ago

    Although the theory is promising, the duo point out that they have not yet completed its proof

    Physics is not math, you can’t “prove” a physical theory. You make predictions and through experiment or observation Nature has the last word.

    • drosophila@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      12·
      9 hours ago

      Quick, get in contact with the physicists, they need the insight that you got from thinking about a sentence in a pop sci article for 30 seconds.

      • aeroplayne@lemm.eeEnglish
        2·
        8 hours ago

        If you get ahold of them, I need to tell them why they’re wrong because of this one time I watched star trek while I was baked.

    • crapwittyname@lemm.eeEnglish
      5·
      9 hours ago

      They are talking about mathematical proofs here. Once the mathematical proof is complete, we can look at the application, i.e. using it to make predictions and seeing how well they do.

    • Agosagror@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      4·
      9 hours ago

      Yes but you can prove that something is true given your set of assumptions about the universe.

      A very loose example would be light being constant which could be an assumption, and then you can show that from that relativity is a natural conclusion. Or proof it formally, resulting in the Einstein’s equations.

    • solrize@lemmy.worldEnglish
      10·
      19 hours ago

      ToE is generally taken to mean a theory that accounts for all four fundamental forces in physics, 1) strong nuclear force, 2) electromagnetism, 3) weak nuclear force (unified in some way with electromagnetism now), 4) gravity. The “standard model” only handles the first three, with gravity being separate and very mysterious. I’m skeptical of this new paper on various grounds but who knows.