Thread: Gravity, The Strong Nuclear Force and Anti Matter

Until we get gravity licked there will always be speculation about just what it is and how it's caused. I am wondering if it could be related to the strong nuclear force that holds atoms together. Could it be that this force also has the effect of producing gravity?

Also if this is in any way connected could an external energy source acting on the strong nuclear force change it so that it is no longer attracted to other gravity producing sources of mass, in the same way that changing the polarity of magnet would stop it being attracted to another magnet?

Then we come to anti matter, would anti matter produce gravity just like mass?, would it produce a type of anti gravity or repelling force?, or would it produce a new type of gravity that only affects anti matter?

No, gravity cannot be squeezed in with electromagnetism or the strong and weak nuclear forces. They've been trying for decades. That's the problem.

Originally Posted by Chrisgorlitz

Then we come to anti matter, would anti matter produce gravity just like mass?, would it produce a type of anti gravity or repelling force?, or would it produce a new type of gravity that only affects anti matter?

It is generally believed that antimatter would exhibit exactly the same gravitational behaviour as normal matter. It would probably introduce some energy conservation issues if it didn't.

The ALPHA experiment at CERN is planning to collect enough antimatter, for long enough, to actually test its properties.

It would be pretty exciting if it had negative mass but ....

Originally Posted by MeteorWayne

No, gravity cannot be squeezed in with electromagnetism or the strong and weak nuclear forces. They've been trying for decades. That's the problem.

I thought this idea had probarbly been explored since we seem to have very few things we can actually compare gavity against. Just thought I'd check you never know.

Originally Posted by Strange

Originally Posted by Chrisgorlitz

Then we come to anti matter, would anti matter produce gravity just like mass?, would it produce a type of anti gravity or repelling force?, or would it produce a new type of gravity that only affects anti matter?

It is generally believed that antimatter would exhibit exactly the same gravitational behaviour as normal matter. It would probably introduce some energy conservation issues if it didn't.

The ALPHA experiment at CERN is planning to collect enough antimatter, for long enough, to actually test its properties.

It would be pretty exciting if it had negative mass but ....

It's certainly interesting and I didn't actually think current science would have even a guess at this one.

Anti-hydrogen ions have been produced at CERN and kept in magnetic suspension for as long as 16 minutes. If antimatter exhibited antigravity, the magnetic fields would have been tuned differently. This would have been a major discovery.