Quantum gravitational contributions to quantum electrodynamics

Understand

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.
• But that claim has been very controversial with the situation inconclusive.
• Here I report an analysis (free from earlier controversies) demonstrating that that quantum gravity corrections to quantum electrodynamics have a quadratic energy dependence that result in the reduction of the electric charge at high energies, a result known as asymptotic freedom.