Detecting a “graviton" – the hypothetical particle making up part of a gravitational field – would require a particle collider the size of the Milky Way or a detector with a mass of the planet Jupiter. These experiments are so detached from our technological capabilities that physicists have focused on trying to remove the mathematical contradictions first, developing approaches like string theory, loop quantum gravity, and asymptotically safe gravity.
引力的弱性质导致我们很难测量它的量子效应；因此，我们无法获得实验数据指导物理学家研究这一迷失的理论。检测“引力子”——形成部分引力场的假象粒子——需要银河系那么大的粒子对撞机或质量与木星相当的检测器。这些实验目前仍远远脱离我们的技术能力，因此物理学家不得不首先解决数学矛盾，发展出弦论、圈量子引力和渐进安全引力等方法。但要想知道哪种理论描述了物理实际，最终要需要实验检验。