Communities
People & Pages
Collections
Post has attachment
Public
Dark Energy May Be Incompatible With String Theory | Quanta Magazine
quantamagazine.org
Add a comment...
Post has shared content
Public
Remembering Joe Polchinski the modest physicist who conceived a multiverse
Creativity and modesty are two of the qualities that made Joe Polchinski an extraordinary theoretical physicist. The early pioneer of string theory died this month at age 63.
Polchinski was an early pioneer of string theory, the mathematical apparatus picturing the basic particles of matter and force as supertiny wriggling strands of energy known as superstrings. His contributions to the field were immense. As a young professor at the University of Texas at Austin in the 1980s, he developed a branch of superstring theory involving objects called supermembranes.
Superstrings are one-dimensional objects (like lines, hence “strings”) vibrating like rubber bands in multidimensional space. (String math presupposed more dimensions than the usual three.) Polchinski explored the possibility that those multiple dimensions could contain two-dimensional membranes, kind of like the film forming the surface of a soap bubble. He and his students derived the math describing such supermembranes living in 11 dimensions (10 of space, one of time).
Maybe, string/brane/M theory would explain the amount of that mysterious “dark” energy in space and all would be well. But no. Working with physicist Raphael Bousso, Polchinski found that string theory did not specify how much energy the vacuum of space contained. Instead the theory predicted a virtually countless number of vacuum states, with nearly any amount of repulsive energy you could imagine. In other words, string theory described a multiverse.
Polchinski’s modesty manifested itself in his reaction to this situation. He hated the idea of a multiverse, because it implied that some questions had no answers that physicists could calculate. No equation could specify the amount of dark energy; it would just be luck — determined by which universe had the right amount of dark energy to make it hospitable to life (an idea known as the anthropic principle).
Interesting Article:
https://www.sciencenews.org/blog/context/remembering-joe-polchinski-modest-physicist-who-conceived-multiverse
#physics #JoePolchinski #stringtheory
Creativity and modesty are two of the qualities that made Joe Polchinski an extraordinary theoretical physicist. The early pioneer of string theory died this month at age 63.
Polchinski was an early pioneer of string theory, the mathematical apparatus picturing the basic particles of matter and force as supertiny wriggling strands of energy known as superstrings. His contributions to the field were immense. As a young professor at the University of Texas at Austin in the 1980s, he developed a branch of superstring theory involving objects called supermembranes.
Superstrings are one-dimensional objects (like lines, hence “strings”) vibrating like rubber bands in multidimensional space. (String math presupposed more dimensions than the usual three.) Polchinski explored the possibility that those multiple dimensions could contain two-dimensional membranes, kind of like the film forming the surface of a soap bubble. He and his students derived the math describing such supermembranes living in 11 dimensions (10 of space, one of time).
Maybe, string/brane/M theory would explain the amount of that mysterious “dark” energy in space and all would be well. But no. Working with physicist Raphael Bousso, Polchinski found that string theory did not specify how much energy the vacuum of space contained. Instead the theory predicted a virtually countless number of vacuum states, with nearly any amount of repulsive energy you could imagine. In other words, string theory described a multiverse.
Polchinski’s modesty manifested itself in his reaction to this situation. He hated the idea of a multiverse, because it implied that some questions had no answers that physicists could calculate. No equation could specify the amount of dark energy; it would just be luck — determined by which universe had the right amount of dark energy to make it hospitable to life (an idea known as the anthropic principle).
Interesting Article:
https://www.sciencenews.org/blog/context/remembering-joe-polchinski-modest-physicist-who-conceived-multiverse
#physics #JoePolchinski #stringtheory
Add a comment...
Post has attachment
Public
Watched the PBS documentary “The Elegant Universe”.
In this three-part TV series, physics professor Brian Greene (Columbia University) pushes his specialty, string theory, as a likely unified theory or “theory of everything”.
The funny thing is that Greene in this TV program from 2003 predicted it would take another 10 to 20 years tops to solve the many mathematical issues. We’re now 2018 and that final breakthrough has not materialised. Nor is there any empirical proof for the fancy mathematics with 11 dimensions. (And Michio Kaku's hair has gone white.)
The conclusion must be that no accepted, proven unified theory exists yet to replace Einstein’s relativity. We still live in a world with four dimensions - the good old space-time curvature.
#science #physics #relativity #einstein #alberteinstein #stringtheory #universe #briangreene #cosmology #gravity #columbiauniversity
In this three-part TV series, physics professor Brian Greene (Columbia University) pushes his specialty, string theory, as a likely unified theory or “theory of everything”.
The funny thing is that Greene in this TV program from 2003 predicted it would take another 10 to 20 years tops to solve the many mathematical issues. We’re now 2018 and that final breakthrough has not materialised. Nor is there any empirical proof for the fancy mathematics with 11 dimensions. (And Michio Kaku's hair has gone white.)
The conclusion must be that no accepted, proven unified theory exists yet to replace Einstein’s relativity. We still live in a world with four dimensions - the good old space-time curvature.
#science #physics #relativity #einstein #alberteinstein #stringtheory #universe #briangreene #cosmology #gravity #columbiauniversity
Add a comment...
Post has attachment
Best thing of the week - StringTheory - a 4-voice polyphonic Solina String synth in your Eurorack in a £45 kit. It's run by MIDI, not CV which won't suit everyone but keeps it simple and cheap https://www.gearnews.com/polyphonic-solina-strings-eurorack-meet-stringtheory/ #makesynthsnotwar #stringtheory
Add a comment...
Post has attachment
String Theory and my Imaginations
By Katherine Lightwood
#digitaldecatron #katherine #katherinelightwood #lightwood #Stringtheory #Imaginations #Physics #Quantum #QuantumPhysics
By Katherine Lightwood
#digitaldecatron #katherine #katherinelightwood #lightwood #Stringtheory #Imaginations #Physics #Quantum #QuantumPhysics
String Theory and my Imaginations By Katherine Lightwood
digitaldecatron.blogspot.com
Post has attachment
Public
String Theory May Create Far Fewer Universes Than Thought #QuantumComputing #QuantumSystem #QuantumComputers #StringTheory #Physics #Universe #PioneeringMinds
String Theory May Create Far Fewer Universes Than Thought - Pioneering Minds
pioneeringminds.com
Add a comment...
Post has attachment
Sp |. SUPERSTRING THEORIES vs BOSONIC STRING THEORY 🔹Wikipedia Excerpts🔹
'Superstring theory' is a shorthand for supersymmetric string theory because unlike bosonic string theory, it is the version of string theory that accounts for both fermions and bosons and incorporates supersymmetry to model gravity.🔹
What is M-THEORY? "Since the second superstring revolution, the five superstring theories are regarded as different limits of a single theory tentatively called M-theory." Wikipedia
ART: untitled
BY DPEARCE © 2018
#STRINGTHEORY
#SUPERSYMMETRICSTRING
#BOSONICSTRINGTHEORY
#M-THEORY
#DAWNART2018
#ABSTRACTS
#FLOWPAPER
'Superstring theory' is a shorthand for supersymmetric string theory because unlike bosonic string theory, it is the version of string theory that accounts for both fermions and bosons and incorporates supersymmetry to model gravity.🔹
What is M-THEORY? "Since the second superstring revolution, the five superstring theories are regarded as different limits of a single theory tentatively called M-theory." Wikipedia
ART: untitled
BY DPEARCE © 2018
#STRINGTHEORY
#SUPERSYMMETRICSTRING
#BOSONICSTRINGTHEORY
#M-THEORY
#DAWNART2018
#ABSTRACTS
#FLOWPAPER
Wait while more posts are being loaded