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Graviton

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Acurveinspacepredicted bygeneral relativity

Agravitonis ahypotheticalparticlethat 'transfers' gravitation's force (particles like this are known asgauge bosons) from itsfield.Gravitons have never been observed, directly or indirectly,[1]however, there have been several theories that use gravitons to explain certain phenomena. For example, a theory that describesblack holesby combiningquantum mechanicsandgravity,has been advanced by Georgi Dvali and Cesar Gomez, which suggests a black hole is "an overpacked bucket of gravitons". There are some theories that suggest that gravitons would make up a new group of particles, "attraction particles". CERN is currently using the Large Hadron Collider to try to find this particle.

The graviton applies a tiny force as it impacts the nuclei of atoms. All atoms themselves have these graviton particles in orbit around them. If you gather a lot of atoms together the population of orbiting gravitons increases proportionately. As a result, a large asteroid for example will have more gravity than a small one. Because the graviton is a particle that hasforce(gravity), it is classed as agauge boson.Other gauge bosons include thephoton,thegluon,and theW and Z particles.

If someone found one, it could lead to a theory which would join the four main physical forces:electromagnetism,gravity,strong forceandweak force.

References

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  1. Wei, Lisa (2003)."What is a graviton?".Curious about Astronomy.Retrieved2009-11-01.