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Letter: Letters : He ain't heavy

Published 28 March 1998

From Rudi Van Nieuwenhove, Belgian Nuclear Research Centre

Boeretang, Belgium

I was really delighted to read about Mark Hadley’s view of general relativity
and quantum physics
(“All the world’s a time machine”, 7 March, p 38).
I share his opinion that gravitons do not exist.

In fact, this conclusion can also be reached by the following simple
reasoning: if gravitons exist, they must have a mass, because the gravitational
field itself gravitates (Einstein’s field equations are nonlinear). As a
consequence, gravitons would have to be exchanged between gravitons, and these
exchanged gravitons would in turn exchange gravitons, and so on. This would mean
that space is filled with an infinite number of gravitons, which would mean it
has an infinite mass.

Since this is impossible, gravitons cannot exist.

Issue no. 2127 published 28 March 1998

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