by Joy Christian » Sat Feb 27, 2016 6:36 am
Ben6993 wrote:Two thoughts/questions on this.
1. If the gravitational waves are accepted as existing as a result of the LIGO data does that imply that gravitons should also be accepted as existing? Can't find that explicitly pointed out in the media coverage.
2. Don't really have much of a clue what spacetime nor space and time are, but I don't see why gravitons should be exactly equated with causing vibrations of space/time/spacetime. Agree though to gravitons causing vibrations of something within space/time but not space/time/spacetime itself. That something being a gravitational field, just as photons give rise to an EM field.
Gravitational waves do not necessitate gravitons. The latter requires additional assumptions for its justification (based on the orthodox interpretation of quantum theory) which Einstein’s generally covariant theory strongly resists. So, No, LIGO data most certainly does not imply that gravitons should be accepted as existing.
By the way, no one knowledgeable doubted the existence of gravitational waves since 1970's, because since then we have had extremely strong
indirect evidence for gravitational waves from the timing data of a binary pulsar. One cannot explain this data without the dissipative energy loss accounted for by the gravitational waves.
[quote="Ben6993"]Two thoughts/questions on this.
1. If the gravitational waves are accepted as existing as a result of the LIGO data does that imply that gravitons should also be accepted as existing? Can't find that explicitly pointed out in the media coverage.
2. Don't really have much of a clue what spacetime nor space and time are, but I don't see why gravitons should be exactly equated with causing vibrations of space/time/spacetime. Agree though to gravitons causing vibrations of something within space/time but not space/time/spacetime itself. That something being a gravitational field, just as photons give rise to an EM field.[/quote]
Gravitational waves do not necessitate gravitons. The latter requires additional assumptions for its justification (based on the orthodox interpretation of quantum theory) which Einstein’s generally covariant theory strongly resists. So, No, LIGO data most certainly does not imply that gravitons should be accepted as existing.
By the way, no one knowledgeable doubted the existence of gravitational waves since 1970's, because since then we have had extremely strong [u]indirect[/u] evidence for gravitational waves from the timing data of a binary pulsar. One cannot explain this data without the dissipative energy loss accounted for by the gravitational waves.
