I came across this news item:
https://thedebrief.org/clash-between-general-relativity-and-quantum-mechanics-could-be-resolved-by-new-mathematical-framework/
Big, exciting new discoveries in science often come about as the
result of someone looking in a place where no one else had bothered to
look before.
A big question in physics that has puzzled scientists is how to
reconcile the geometric description of gravity in General Relativity
with the wave-particle description of electromagnetism in Quantum
Mechanics.
Not everyone, though, still feels this is really a problem.
Kaluza-Klein theory was a failed attempt to extend Geeral Relativity
to also include electromagnetism; but after electroweak theory and
quantum chromodynamics were developed, a modified version of
Kaluza-Klein theory which built upon this was created, known as
"supergravity". Unlike Kaluza-Klein theory, it was renormalizable.
And then, shortly after, these ideas were further extended into string
theory, an exciting new area of physics.
And on the other hand, gravity can be described in quantium terms by
making the graviton a spin-2 particle.
Because General Relativity deals with curved space, working with it
requires knowledge of Tensor Calculus, and maybe even Differential
Geometry, which are very difficult sdubjects.
So it's not to be wondered at that no one tried looking to see if the geometrical framework for gravity in General Relativity could be
replaced by something even _more_ complicated.
But, however much more work this might mean for scientists, it would
still yield dividends if that was the way gravity really did work. And
that's the possibility this news item deals with.
Explaining gravity in terms of something called Finsler geometry
raises the exciting possibility that in *this* kind of curved space,
the quantum-mechanical descriptions of the other forces will fit right
in, leading to a single unified theory of physics.
John Savard
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