Entropic Gravity: Is Gravity Not a Fundamental Force?
For centuries, physicists have grappled with understanding the nature of gravity. Newton's law of universal gravitation, while effective, left its mechanism of action at a distance unexplained. Einstein's general relativity offered a deeper explanation, but it also has limitations. Recently, entropic gravity proposes that gravity isn't a fundamental force, but rather a collective effect of deeper, more microscopic physics, similar to 17th-century mechanical models. New research models this effect using quantum bits, suggesting that gravity arises from the interaction of these qubits with massive objects, resulting in an apparent attractive force due to entropy increase. While still in its early stages, this model opens up new experimental avenues for gravity research, such as testing gravitational effects in quantum superpositions, potentially shedding light on fundamental issues like wave function collapse.