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Do we know that photons obey normal gravity? I was under the impression that we know that light can be bent by the warping of space-time due to gravity, but not
by akiselev 8y ago
Do we know that photons obey normal gravity? I was under the impression that we know that light can be bent by the warping of space-time due to gravity, but not that it interacts with the Higgs field.
Photons don't really have an anti-matter pair that we can observe afaik because anti-particles have the same mass and spin but opposite charge as their counterpart. Since photons have no charge, a photons anti-matter pair is just another photon. Furthermore, we know that anti-hydrogen has the same spectral lines as hydrogen so their electromagnetic interactions are the same.
Finding that anti-matter has anti-gravity would be world changing, though I'm setting my expectations very low. It would mean that we have access to the kind of exotic matter needed for a practical Alcubierre warp drive and could open up an entirely new field of space time engineering. It's just extremely unlikely, given all we know, that anti-matter has such properties.
- marcosdumay 8y agoThe Higgs field is not directly related to gravity. Linking gravity with quantum mechanics is still an ongoing research area.
- AGoodName 8y ago>we know that light can be bent by the warping of space-time due to gravity That literally is light obeying gravity. Gravity interacts exclusively by the warping of space-time. Gravity and the Higgs field are completely 100% unrelated. https://profmattstrassler.com/2012/10/15/why-the-higgs-and-gravity-are-unrelated/ https://profmattstrassler.com/2012/10/15/why-the-higgs-and-g...
- hliyan 8y ago> Gravity and the Higgs field are completely 100% unrelated. That is an incredible insight for me -- I never thought of it that way. So the thing that creates inertia (mass) is not the same as the thing that generates gravitational force -- they're just correlated in the types of matter that beings like us can interact with?
- gpderetta 8y agoIANAP, but IIRC while the higgs field gives mass to electrons, quarks, the W bosons and a few more particles, the vast majority of the mass of the atom (and thus of what we normally call matter) is due to the binding energy of quarks and gluons and not related to the higgs field.
- akiselev 8y agoThank you for that link, it clears up a lot!