In theories of quantum gravity, the graviton is the hypothetical quantum of gravity, an elementary particle that mediates the force of gravitational interaction. There is no complete quantum field theory of gravitons due to an outstanding mathematical problem with renormalization in general relativity. In string theory, believed by some to be a consistent theory of quantum gravity, the graviton is a massless state of a fundamental string.

If it exists, the graviton is expected to be massless because the gravitational force has a very long range, and appears to propagate at the speed of light. The graviton must be a spin-2 boson because the source of gravitation is the stress–energy tensor, a second-order tensor (compared with electromagnetism's spin-1 photon, the source of which is the four-current, a first-order tensor). Additionally, it can be shown that any massless spin-2 field would give rise to a force indistinguishable from gravitation, because a massless spin-2 field would couple to the stress–energy tensor in the same way gravitational interactions do. This result suggests that, if a massless spin-2 particle is discovered, it must be the graviton.^[5]

It is hypothesized that gravitational interactions are mediated by an as yet undiscovered elementary particle, dubbed the graviton. The three other known forces of nature are mediated by elementary particles: electromagnetism by the photon, the strong interaction by gluons, and the weak interaction by the W and Z bosons. All three of these forces appear to be accurately described by the Standard Model of particle physics. In the classical limit, a successful theory of gravitons would reduce to general relativity, which itself reduces to Newton's law of gravitation in the weak-field limit.^[6][7][8]

Albert Einstein discussed quantized gravitational radiation in 1916, the year following his publication of general relativity.^[9]: 525 The term graviton was coined in 1934 by Soviet physicists Dmitry Blokhintsev and Fyodor Galperin [ru].^[3][9] Paul Dirac reintroduced the term in a number of lectures in 1959, noting that the energy of the gravitational field should come in quanta.^[10][11] A mediation of the gravitational interaction by particles was anticipated by Pierre-Simon Laplace.^[12] Just like Newton's anticipation of photons, Laplace's anticipated "gravitons" had a greater speed than the speed of light in vacuum ${\displaystyle c}$, the speed of gravitons expected in modern theories, and were not connected to quantum mechanics or special relativity, since these theories didn't yet exist during Laplace's lifetime.

When describing graviton interactions, the classical theory of Feynman diagrams and semiclassical corrections such as one-loop diagrams behave normally. However, Feynman diagrams with at least two loops lead to ultraviolet divergences.^[13] These infinite results cannot be removed because quantized general relativity is not perturbatively renormalizable, unlike quantum electrodynamics and models such as the Yang–Mills theory. Therefore, incalculable answers are found from the perturbation method by which physicists calculate the probability of a particle to emit or absorb gravitons, and the theory loses predictive veracity. Those problems and the complementary approximation framework are grounds to show that a theory more unified than quantized general relativity is required to describe the behavior near the Planck scale.

Like the force carriers of the other forces (see photon, gluon, W and Z bosons), the graviton plays a role in general relativity, in defining the spacetime in which events take place. In some descriptions energy modifies the "shape" of spacetime itself, and gravity is a result of this shape, an idea which at first glance may appear hard to match with the idea of a force acting between particles.^[14] Because the diffeomorphism invariance of the theory does not allow any particular space-time background to be singled out as the "true" space-time background, general relativity is said to be background-independent. In contrast, the Standard Model is not background-independent, with Minkowski space enjoying a special status as the fixed background space-time.^[15] A theory of quantum gravity is needed in order to reconcile these differences.^[16] Whether this theory should be background-independent is an open question. The answer to this question will determine the understanding of what specific role gravitation plays in the fate of the universe.^[17]

While gravitons are presumed to be massless, they would still carry energy, as does any other quantum particle. Photon energy and gluon energy are also carried by massless particles. It is unclear which variables might determine graviton energy, the amount of energy carried by a single graviton.

Alternatively, if gravitons are massive at all, the analysis of gravitational waves yielded a new upper bound on the mass of gravitons. The graviton's Compton wavelength is at least 1.6×10¹⁶ m, or about 1.6 light-years, corresponding to a graviton mass of no more than 7.7×10⁻²³ eV/c².^[18] This relation between wavelength and mass-energy is calculated with the Planck–Einstein relation, the same formula that relates electromagnetic wavelength to photon energy.

Unambiguous detection of individual gravitons, though not prohibited by any fundamental law, has been thought to be impossible with any physically reasonable detector.^[19] The reason is the extremely low cross section for the interaction of gravitons with matter. For example, a detector with the mass of Jupiter and 100% efficiency, placed in close orbit around a neutron star, would only be expected to observe one graviton every 10 years, even under the most favorable conditions. It would be impossible to discriminate these events from the background of neutrinos, since the dimensions of the required neutrino shield would ensure collapse into a black hole.^[19] It has been proposed that detecting single gravitons would be possible by quantum sensing.^[20] Even quantum events may not indicate quantization of gravitational radiation.^[21]

LIGO and Virgo collaborations' observations have directly detected gravitational waves.^[22][23][24] Others have postulated that graviton scattering yields gravitational waves as particle interactions yield coherent states.^[25] Although these experiments cannot detect individual gravitons, they might provide information about certain properties of the graviton.^[26] For example, if gravitational waves were observed to propagate slower than c (the speed of light in vacuum), that would imply that the graviton has mass (however, gravitational waves must propagate slower than c in a region with non-zero mass density if they are to be detectable).^[27] Observations of gravitational waves put an upper bound of 1.76×10⁻²³ eV/c² on the graviton's mass.^[28] Solar system planetary trajectory measurements by space missions such as Cassini and MESSENGER give a comparable upper bound of 3.16×10⁻²³ eV/c².^[29] The gravitational wave and planetary ephemeris need not agree: they test different aspects of a potential graviton-based theory.^[30]: 71

Astronomical observations of the kinematics of galaxies, especially the galaxy rotation problem and modified Newtonian dynamics, might point toward gravitons having non-zero mass.^[31][32]

Most theories containing gravitons suffer from severe problems. Attempts to extend the Standard Model or other quantum field theories by adding gravitons run into serious theoretical difficulties at energies close to or above the Planck scale. This is because of infinities arising due to quantum effects; technically, gravitation is not renormalizable. Since classical general relativity and quantum mechanics seem to be incompatible at such energies, from a theoretical point of view, this situation is not tenable. One possible solution is to replace particles with strings. String theories are quantum theories of gravity in the sense that they reduce to classical general relativity plus field theory at low energies, but are fully quantum mechanical, contain a graviton, and are thought to be mathematically consistent.^[33]

Wikiversity has learning resources about Graviton

• Graviton on In Our Time at the BBC