2010/10/05 by David J. Toms · 105 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Cavity quantum electrodynamics #Charge (physics) #Classical electromagnetism #Classical mechanics #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Electric charge #Electron #General relativity #Gravitation #Noncommutative and Quantum Gravity Theories #Open quantum system #Photon #Physics #Quantum #Quantum electrodynamics #Quantum gravity #Quantum mechanics #Stochastic electrodynamics #gr-qc #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1038/nature09506
published in Nature 468(7320), 56-59 (Nature Portfolio) · To be published in Nature. 19 pages LaTeX, no figures
arxiv created 2010/10/05 · openalex publication_date 2010/11/01 · arxiv updated 2011/11/09 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Quantum electrodynamics describes the interactions of electrons and photons. Electric charge (the gauge coupling constant) is energy dependent, and there is a previous claim that charge is affected by gravity (described by general relativity) with the implication that the charge is reduced at high energies. But that claim has been very controversial with the situation inconclusive. Here I report an analysis (free from earlier controversies) demonstrating that that quantum gravity corrections to quantum electrodynamics have a quadratic energy dependence that result in the reduction of the electric charge at high energies, a result known as asymptotic freedom.