Grand Unified Theory – Unified Field Theory

Before Consequences of the Discovery of Gravitational Waves – 2 – Quantum Fields, the Higgs Field and Inflation Theory As I mentioned in my article, since there weren't any detailed resources on the grand unified theory, also known as unified field theory, I made a note to myself that I needed to write an article. Now it's time to write that article.

To do this, we actually need to go back a bit. Everything needs to be explained in order. We know that there are four fundamental forces governing the universe: electromagnetic force, gravitational force, strong nuclear force, and weak nuclear force. These four forces seem like completely different things. But are they?

James Clerk Maxwell

In the 19th century, electric and magnetic forces were thought to be different. However, Maxwell discovered that electric and magnetic forces were the same, and that the electromagnetic force was carried by carrier particles within a field. They also discovered that photons always travel at a speed of 300,000 km/s. At that time, because Newtonian physics considered relativistic motion, what was the speed of light thought to be 300,000 km/h? If this speed was constant, what was the speed constant relative to?

After all, motion is a relative concept. When they couldn't figure it out, they breathed a sigh of relief by claiming there was something called the ether that filled the entire universe. Although the nature of this ether was unknown, light would travel through it at 300,000 km/h. However, this created a problem: If we were moving toward a photon at 250,000 km/h, the photon's speed would have to reach 550,000 km/h. Or, if we were moving away at that speed, the photon's motion relative to us would have slowed to 50,000 km/h. However, measurements showed a speed of 300,000 km/h, regardless of the speed.

Albert Einstein

In 1905, Einstein put an end to this by proposing his theory of special relativity. He proposed that a photon travels at 300,000 kilometers per second, regardless of the observer's speed or direction of motion. This eliminated the need for a background ether. Interestingly, the ether reappeared under a very different name, but not in the way one might expect. To achieve this, he abolished absolute time, revealing that everyone has their own personal clock and relative time.

Newton's absolute motion, Einstein's absolute time, was destroyed. First of all, if you were to ask how this could happen, you'd be mistaken if you looked at the speed of light according to our classical perspective. Einstein's idea of relative time doesn't exist in our perspective. Anyway, let's continue without further ado. I'll have a series of articles to extend anyway.

Steven Weinberg on the left and Abdus Salam on the right

Later, Steven Winberg and Abdus Salam proposed that at high energy levels, the w and z bosons, carrier particles of the weak nuclear force, and the photons, carrier particles of the electromagnetic force, behave as the same particle. Because photons and the w and z bosons behave identically at the energy level of 100 GEV (1 gev = 1 billion electronvolts), they unified these two forces and named them the electroweak force.

The reason for the two different perspectives on a single force is that while the photon is a neutral boson, the w and z bosons begin to behave differently when energy decreases, gaining mass due to symmetry breaking. The symmetry breaking in the Big Bang (the decrease in symmetry as the temperature decreases) can also be envisioned as a form transition for the universe.

Grand Unification Theory
This graph depicts the combination of the three forces at different energy levels and further illustrates the addition of the 4th force, which is the theory of super-unification.

Then theoretically 10¹⁵ It has been determined that at the energy level of GEV (1 gev = 1 billion electronvolts), the electroweak force and the strong nuclear force begin to behave similarly. Theoretical mathematical calculations have shown that the carrier particles of the electroweak force and the gluons, the carrier particles of the strong nuclear force, behave similarly and are simply different manifestations of the same force. Of course, since we cannot reach such an energy level, proving this is virtually impossible.

The unification of these three forces into a single force is called the grand unification theory, or unified field theory. In short, it's based on quantum field theory, or the standard model. But let's not stop there; let's go further.

When they took the theoretical calculations even further,¹⁹ At the GEV energy level, the gravitational force finally enters this unification. At that energy level, gravitons, thought to be the carrier particles of the gravitational force, theoretically begin to behave similarly to the carrier particles of the other unified forces. However, this level is identical to the energy level of the universe confined to the Planck distance, the universe at the time of the Big Bang. You can guess where we're headed from here.

This theory, where all forces are different manifestations of a single force, is called the super-grand unified theory, or super-unified field theory. You might be wondering why this is important. In addition to providing a simpler description of the universe, the Big Bang is also significant. Because of the immense concentration of mass in a very small space, quantum physics and general relativity need to be unified, but this is not possible. The unification of these two theories means that the standard model, which includes three forces, or quantum field theory, can incorporate the gravitational force in general relativity. This is called the super-grand unified theory, the unified field theory, or the theory of everything. I will address the challenges and thoughts on this topic in my next article. In fact, when I finish my research on quantum ring theory, I will begin a long series of articles. If I can, I might publish it as a popular science book. But I will definitely make it available online as a free e-book. See you in my next article.