# The theoretical significance of 𝐺*footnote **footnote *Talk given at the conference “The Gravitational Constant: Theory and Experiment 200 years after Cavendish” (London, 23-24 November 1998); to appear in Measurement, Science and Technology, 1999.

## Abstract

The quantization of gravity, and its unification with the other interactions, is one of the greatest challenges of theoretical physics. Current ideas suggest that the value of $`G`$ might be related to the other fundamental constants of physics, and that gravity might be richer than the standard Newton-Einstein description. This gives added significance to measurements of $`G`$ and to Cavendish-type experiments.

Cavendish’s famous experiment , carried out in 1798 using an apparatus conceived by the Reverend John Michell, gave the first accurate determination of the strength of the gravitational coupling. We refer to the beautiful review of Everitt  for an authorative discussion of this classic experiment. At the 95% confidence level, the value obtained by Cavendish for the mean density of the Earth was $`5.48\pm 0.10`$ (the modern value being 5.57) . This corresponds to a fractional precision of 1.8%. As is discussed in detail in the other contributions to this Cavendish bicentennial conference, our present knowledge of the value of Newton’s constant $`G`$ seems to be uncertain at the $`10^3`$ level. This contrasts very much with our knowledge of other fundamental constants of physics (e.g. $`\alpha _{\mathrm{e}.\mathrm{m}.}=e^2/(4\pi \mathrm{}c)`$, and particle masses) which are known with a part in a million precision, or better. \[One can note, however, that the strong coupling constant, at the $`Z`$-boson mass scale, $`\alpha _s(m_Z)`$ is known only with a fractional precision of 1.7% .\] The purpose of this contribution is to discuss briefly the significance of the value of $`G`$, and more generally of Cavendish experiments, within the current framework of theoretical physics.

Let us immediately note that, as any other fundamental constant of physics, $`G`$ should be measured with state-of-the-art precision, even if the significance of its value within the framework of physics were unknown (or small). But the main point I wish to make here is that many theoretical developments of twentieth’ century physics suggest that there is an especially deep significance attached to the value of $`G`$. This gives, therefore, all the more importance to measurements of $`G`$. \[Though, as we shall see, our current theoretical understanding is incomplete and cannot yet make full use of any precise value of $`G`$.\]

As a starting point, let us remind the reader that the strength of gravity is strikingly smaller than that of the three other known interactions. Indeed, in quantum theory, the strengths of the electromagnetic, weak and strong interactions are measured by three dimensionless numbers $`\alpha _1`$, $`\alpha _2`$, $`\alpha _3`$ which are smaller but not much smaller than unity. Here, $`\alpha _ig_i^2/(4\pi \mathrm{}c)`$, with $`i=1,2,3`$, where $`g_1`$, $`g_2`$, and $`g_3`$ are the coupling constants of the gauge groups $`U(1)`$, $`SU(2)`$ and $`SU(3)`$, respectivelyHere, $`\alpha _1(5/3)\alpha _Y`$ with $`Y`$ being the weak hypercharge $`(Y(e_R)=1)`$. The usual fine-structure constant $`\alpha =e^2/(4\pi \mathrm{}c)1/137`$ corresponds to a combination of $`\alpha _Y`$ and $`\alpha _2`$.. The values of the $`\alpha _i`$’s depend on the energy scale at which they are measured, i.e. they depend on the distance scaleWe recall that in relativistic quantum mechanics (using $`c=1`$) an energy scale $`E`$ corresponds to a distance scale $`L_E=\mathrm{}/E0.2`$ fermi $`(E/\mathrm{Ge}V)^1`$. on which the interaction is being probed. \[For instance, the strong coupling constant $`\alpha _3`$, measuring the strength of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), is of order unity at the energy scale $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\mathrm{QCD}}200\mathrm{Me}V`$, and becomes small at high energy scales, i.e. at very short distances.\] The numerical values of the $`\alpha _i`$’s at the energy scale defined by the mass of the $`Z`$ boson, $`m_Z91\mathrm{Ge}V`$, are 

$$\alpha _1(m_Z)=\frac{1}{58.97\pm 0.08},\alpha _2(m_Z)=\frac{1}{29.61\pm 0.13},\alpha _3(m_Z)=\frac{1}{8.3\pm 0.5}.$$
(1)   
When the energy scale $`\mu `$ increases, $`\alpha _1(\mu )`$ and $`\alpha _2(\mu )`$ increase, while $`\alpha _3(\mu )`$ decreases. It seems (if one makes extra assumptions about the existence and spectrum of new (supersymmetric) particles at higher energies) that the three gauge couplings unify to a common numerical value

$$\alpha _1(m_U)\alpha _2(m_U)\alpha _3(m_U)\alpha _U\frac{1}{25}$$
(2)   
at a very high energy scale

$$m_U2\times 10^{16}\mathrm{Ge}V.$$
(3)   
By contrast with the numerical values (1) or (2), the corresponding “gravitational fine-structure constant”, $`\alpha _g(m)Gm^2/\mathrm{}c`$, obtained by noting that the gravitational interaction energy $`Gm^2/r`$ is analogous to the electric one $`e^2/(4\pi r)`$, is strikingly small, $`\alpha _g(m)10^{40}`$, when $`m`$ is taken to be a typical particle mass. Indeed,

$$\alpha _g(m)\frac{Gm^2}{\mathrm{}c}6.707\times 10^{39}\left(\frac{m}{\mathrm{Ge}V}\right)^2.$$
(4)   
For a long time, this enormous numerical difference was viewed as a challenge. At face value, it seems to imply that gravity has nothing to do with the three other interactions. However, some authors tried to find a natural origin for numbers as small as (4). In particular, Landau  conjectured that the very small value of $`\alpha _g`$ might be connected with the value of the fine-structure constant $`\alpha =[137.0359895(61)]^1`$ by a formula of the type $`\alpha _gA\mathrm{exp}(B/\alpha )`$, with $`A`$ and $`B`$ being numbers of order unity. More recently, ’t Hooft  resurrected this idea in the context of instanton physics, where such exponentially small factors appear naturally. He suggested that the value $`B=\pi /4`$ was natural, and he considered the case where $`m=m_e`$, the electron mass. It was noted (for fun) in Ref.  that the simple-looking value $`A=(7\pi )^2/5`$ happens to give an excellent agreement with the experimental value of $`G`$. Namely, if we define (for fun) a simple-looking “theoretical” value of $`G`$ by

$$\alpha _g^{\mathrm{theory}}(m_e)\frac{G^{\mathrm{theory}}m_e^2}{\mathrm{}c}\frac{(7\pi )^2}{5}\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{\pi }{4\alpha }\right),$$
(5)   
one finds that it corresponds to $`G^{\mathrm{theory}}=6.6723458\times 10^8\mathrm{cm}^3g^1s^2`$, in excellent agreement with the CODATA value: $`G^{\mathrm{CODATA}}/G^{\mathrm{theory}}=1.00004\pm 0.00013`$ !

The first aim of this exercise was to exhibit one explicit example of a possible theoretical prediction for $`G`$. The second aim is to serve as an introduction to the currently existing “predictions” for the value of $`G`$ which are numerically inadequate, but which are conceptually important. Indeed, the main message of the present contribution is that the gravitational interaction is currently believed to play a central role in physics, and to unify with the other interactions at a very high energy scale. The main argument is that gravity, like the other interactions, should be described by quantum theory. However, quantizing the gravitational field has turned up to be a much more difficult task than quantizing the other interactions. Let us recall that the electromagnetic interaction was quantized in the years 1930-1950 (QED), and that the weak and strong interactions were quantized in the 70’s and 80’s (Standard Model of weak interactions and QCD). The methods used to quantize the electroweak and strong interactions are deeply connected with the fact that the (quantum) coupling constants of these interactions, $`\alpha _i=g_i^2/(4\pi \mathrm{}c)`$, are dimensionless. By contrast, we see from Eq. (4) that the quantum gravitational coupling constant $`G/\mathrm{}c`$ has the dimension of an inverse mass squared, or (using the correspondence $`L_E=\mathrm{}/E`$) of a distance squared. This simple fact has deep consequences on the quantization of gravity. It means that gravity becomes very strong at high energies, i.e. at short distance scales. This is directly apparent in Eq. (4). If we consider a quantum process involving the mass-energy scale $`\mu `$, the associated dimensionless analog of the fine-structure constant will be $`\alpha _g(\mu )=G\mu ^2/\mathrm{}c`$ and will grow quadratically with $`\mu `$. This catastrophic growth renders inefficient the (renormalizable quantum field theory) methods used in the quantization of the other interactions. It suggests that gravity defines a maximum mass scale, or a minimum distance. There is, at present, only one theory which, indeed, contains such a fundamental length scale, and which succeeds (at least in the perturbative sense) in making sense of quantum gravity: namely, String Theory. This theory (which is not yet constructed as a well defined, all encompassing framework) contains no dimensionless parameter, and only one dimensionful parameter $`\alpha ^{}=\mathrm{}_s^2=m_s^2`$ where $`\mathrm{}_s`$ is a length, and $`m_s`$ a mass (we henceforth often use units where $`\mathrm{}=1=c`$). In the simplest case (where the theory is perturbative, and no large dimensionless numbers are present), String Theory makes a conceptually very elegant prediction: it predicts that the “fine-structure constants” of all the interactions, including the gravitational one, must become equal at an energy scale of the order of the fundamental string mass $`m_s`$. In other words, it predicts (in the simplest case) that

$$\alpha _g(m_U)\alpha _1(m_U)\alpha _2(m_U)\alpha _3(m_U)\text{at}m_Um_S.$$
(6)   
This yields $`G\alpha _U/m_U^2`$. Taking into account some numerical factors  yields something like ($`\gamma `$ denoting Euler’s constant)

$$\frac{G}{\mathrm{}c}\frac{e^{1\gamma }}{3^{3/2}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}4}\pi }\frac{\alpha _U}{m_U^2}.$$
(7)   
When one inserts the “experimental” values (2) and (3) for $`\alpha _U`$ and $`m_U`$, one finds that the R.H.S. of Eq. (7) is about 100 times larger than the actual value of $`G`$. Many attempts have been made to remedy this discrepancy . However, the main message I wish to convey here is that modern physics tries to unify gravity with the other interactions and suggests the existence of conceptually important links, such as Eq. (7), between $`G`$ and the other coupling constants of physics. It is quite possible that, in the near future, there will exist a better prediction for $`G`$.

I wish to mention that the exponential-type relations (5) between $`G`$, $`\alpha `$ and the particle mass scales are also (roughly) compatible with the type of unification predicted by string theory. Indeed, the hadronic mass scale $`(\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\mathrm{QCD}})`$ determining the mass of the proton, the neutron and the other strongly interacting particles is (via the Renormalization Group) predicted to be exponentially related to the string mass $`m_s`$. Roughly

$$m_pm_s\mathrm{exp}(b/\alpha _U)$$
(8)   
where $`b`$ is a (known) number of order unity. Combining (8) with (6) leads to

$$\alpha _g(m_p)=\frac{Gm_p^2}{\mathrm{}c}\alpha _Ue^{2b/\alpha _U},$$
(9)   
where $`\alpha _U`$ is the common value of the gauge coupling constants at unification.

Finally, let me mention that String Theory (and other attempts at quantizing gravity, and/or unifying it with the other interactions) makes other generic predictions that might be testable in Cavendish-type experiments. Indeed, a generic prediction of such theories is that there are more gravitational-strength interactions than the usual (tensor) one described by Einstein’s general relativity. In particular, the usual tensor gravitational field $`g_{\mu \nu }(x)`$ is typically accompanied by one or several scalar fields $`\phi (x)`$. As many high-precision tests of relativistic gravity have put stringent limits on any long-range scalar gravitational fields (see, e.g., ), there are two possibilities (assuming that such scalar partners of $`g_{\mu \nu }`$ do exist in Nature):

(i) the scalar gravitational field $`\phi (x)`$ is (like $`g_{\mu \nu }`$) long-ranged, but its strength has been reduced much below the usual gravitational strength $`G`$ by some mechanism. \[A natural cosmological mechanism for the reduction of any scalar coupling strength has been discussed in Refs. , .\];

(ii) the initially long-ranged field $`\phi (x)`$, has acquired a mass-term $`m_\phi `$, i.e. it has become short-ranged (decreasing with distance like $`e^{m_\phi r}/r`$), but its strength is still comparable to (or larger than) $`G`$ , .

In the first case, the best hope of detecting such a deviation from standard gravity is to perform ultra-high-precision tests of the equivalence principle . In the second case, deviations from standard (Newtonian) gravity might appear in short-distance Cavendish-type experiments , . Indeed, it is possible (but by no means certain) that the mass (and therefore the range $`m_\phi ^1`$) of such gravitational-strength fields be related to the supersymmetry breaking scale $`m_{\mathrm{SUSY}}`$ by a relation of the type $`m_\phi G^{1/2}m_{\mathrm{SUSY}}^210^3\mathrm{eV}(m_{\mathrm{SUSY}}/\mathrm{Te}V)^2`$. Therefore, if $`m_{\mathrm{SUSY}}1\mathrm{T}\mathrm{e}V`$, the observable strength of gravity would increase by a factor of order unity at distances below $`m_\phi ^11\mathrm{mm}`$ , . More recently, another line of thought has suggested that gravity could be even more drastically modified below some distance $`r_0`$ . In principle, Cavendish-type experiments performed for separations smaller than $`r_0`$ might see a change of the $`1/r^2`$ law: the exponent 2 being replaced by an exponent larger than or equal to 4  ! \[Note, however, that in these models $`r_0`$ is already constrained to be smaller than $`1\mu \mathrm{m}`$.\] I wish also to mention a general argument of Weinberg  suggesting the existence of a new gravitational-related interaction with range larger than 0.1 mm . \[The recent announcement of the measurement of a non zero cosmological constant goes in the direction of confirming the importance of such a submillimeter scale.\]

In conclusion, I hope to have shown that $`G`$-measurements and Cavendish-type experiments have now reached a new significance as possible windows on the physics of unification between gravity and the other interactions.