School of Mathematics and Statistics, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, UK.
Nature. 2010 Nov 4;468(7320):56-9. doi: 10.1038/nature09506.
Quantum electrodynamics describes the interactions of electrons and photons. Electric charge (the gauge coupling constant) is energy dependent, and there is a previous claim that charge is affected by gravity (described by general relativity) with the implication that the charge is reduced at high energies. However, that claim has been very controversial and the matter has not been settled. Here I report an analysis (free from the earlier controversies) demonstrating that quantum gravity corrections to quantum electrodynamics have a quadratic energy dependence that result in the electric charge vanishing at high energies, a result known as asymptotic freedom.
量子电动力学描述了电子和光子的相互作用。电荷（规范耦合常数）与能量有关，并且之前有一个说法称电荷受到引力（由广义相对论描述）的影响，这意味着电荷在高能下会减小。然而，这一说法一直存在很大争议，尚未得到解决。在这里，我报告了一项分析（不受早期争议的影响），表明量子引力对量子电动力学的修正具有二次能量依赖性，这导致电荷在高能下消失，这一结果被称为渐近自由。
