GRENOBLE, FRANCE - When objects fall due to gravity, they don't fall smoothly, but lurch, a French experiment has shown.
Electrons orbiting a nucleus are restricted by the rules of quantum mechanics. To move, the particles must jump from one quantum state to another.
Theoretically, the rules of quantum mechanics should apply to all four fundamental forces in nature: electromagnetism, the weak and strong nuclear forces and gravity.
Compared to the other forces, gravity is a feeble force. Until now, physicists haven't been able to see the jumping effect when it comes to gravity.
Not a smooth fall
It is too difficult to see the tiny quantum effects of gravity in everyday objects because the other three forces get in the way. So Valery Nesvizhevsky and his colleagues at the Laue-Langevin Institute in Grenoble, France studied ultracold neutrons.
The researchers isolated the neutrons from the three other forces in a specially designed detector. They were able to show the slow-moving, uncharged particles fall under the influence of gravity as predicted. The particles jumped from one height to another.
Physicists say if the apparatus is refined, they may be able to explain how gravity behaves in the quantum world of subatomic particles. And they might be able to figure out how gravity is created.
The report appears in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.
http://cbc.ca/cgi-bin/view?/news/2002/0 ... vity020116
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Brenda
