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出典:『Wikipedia』 (2011/04/30 19:17 UTC 版)

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In particle physics and physical cosmology, the Planck scale is an energy scale around 1.22 × 10¹⁹ GeV (which corresponds by the mass–energy equivalence to the Planck mass 2.17645 × 10⁻⁸ kg) at which quantum effects of gravity become strong. At this scale, the description of sub-atomic particle interactions in terms of quantum field theory breaks down (due to the non-renormalizability of gravity). That is, although physicists have a fairly good understanding of the other fundamental interactions or forces on the quantum level, gravity is problematic, and cannot be integrated with quantum mechanics (at high energies) using the usual framework of quantum field theory. For energies approaching the Planck scale, an exact theory of quantum gravity is required, and the current leading candidate is string theory, or its modernized form M-theory. Other approaches to this problem include Loop quantum gravity and Noncommutative geometry. At the Planck scale, the strength of gravity is expected to become comparable to the other forces, and it is theorized that all the fundamental forces are unified at that scale, but the exact mechanism of this unification remains unknown.