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Two uncharged particles are placed in an empty universe one light year apart. In one year, they will feel each other's presence and begin attraction. We are ignoring the uncertainty principle in this scenario.

Does this attraction begin in exactly one year? Or instead, does each particle spew out gravity attraction particles in all directions at a rate which is not exactly continuous in all directions and which requires an element of chance to strike upon its destination?

Same question for the other elementary forces.

Qmechanic
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William Entriken
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  • Such a universe doesn't exist and we don't have a single physical theory in which one could construct anything resembling this situation without violating some of the laws of the theory. What are "gravity attraction particles"? Gravitons? Nobody knows if gravitons exist. Even if gravitons exist we have no way of measuring any using your weak gravity scenario. The only way one could possibly measure quantum gravity would be at extremely small distances and extremely high energies. At large distances gravity always behaves like a classical field theory (albeit not like a force theory). – CuriousOne Dec 26 '15 at 07:06
  • I'm voting to close this question as off-topic non-mainstream because one cannot just create two particles one light year apart from nothing. To get this question reopened, use a physically realistic premise. – Qmechanic Dec 26 '15 at 12:56
  • @curiousone thank you, this is a great, could you please post as an answer – William Entriken Dec 26 '15 at 18:05
  • @qmechanic you are saying that my question is too simple/unobservable. If instead, I asked about something a little larger than a single photon, not created spontaneously and measured the gravity with several LISA-style interferometers acting as a telescope between them, then would this be a valid question to you? – William Entriken Dec 26 '15 at 18:11
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    You're essentially trying to ask How fast does gravity propagate?, I think. This has, however, nothing to do with your title question of "Is gravity quantized?" or "gravitation attraction particles" (electrical charges don't continually emit photons, either, that's a rather severe misconception in popular physics). – ACuriousMind Dec 26 '15 at 19:31
  • Light is quantized. One way you can tell this is to create a periodic light source. Then put two light detectors far away. You should find that in some instances one or the other will detect but but not both. (If we assume water waves are continuous then this is not the case, both boies are always synchronous.) I am asking which way gravity is. – William Entriken Dec 27 '15 at 02:58
  • The title question (v2) is a duplicate of http://physics.stackexchange.com/q/6980/2451 , http://physics.stackexchange.com/q/10088/2451 and links therein. – Qmechanic Dec 28 '15 at 12:50

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