QUANTUM GRAVITY AND QUANTUM ELECTRODYNAMICS
Andrzej Staruszkiewicz, Marian Smoluchowski · 2004
The Author is of the opinion that a sound piece of theoretical physics arises when one tries to understand a certain striking regularity in Nature. A classical example is the General Theory of Relativity which is the result of meditation on the equality of inertial and gravitational mass. In “Quantum Gravity”, whatever this term is supposed to mean, there is nothing comparable to the equality of inertial and gravitational mass. By contrast, in Quantum Electrodynamics (not Q.E.D.!) there is a phenomenon every bit as striking as this equality: it is the universality of charge quantization. Electron’s and proton’s electric charges are equal with experimental accuracy 1:10 20 while inertial and gravitational masses are equal with experimental accuracy 1:10 12 . The electric charge is a manifestation of substantiality of matter. By substantiality we mean something which is or is not there, regardless