While twenty-six dimensions are far too many, they can be twisted or even folded into tiny tight compact regions in spacetime, thus possibly reducing the dimensions to four. However, problems arise when the complex mathematics of string theory indicate a need for twenty-six spatial dimensions to function. It offers a sound hypothesis of interactions on the quantum plane, from what quarks are made of to the long sought-after graviton (which mediates gravitational interaction, a massless particle with an integer spin of +/-2). String theory, while prestigious in many facets-especially in quantum mechanics and cosmology-does indeed carry flaws that can turn the universe inside out. Scientists chose "strings" over "line segments" because strings are flexible, and can be contorted in almost infinite ways, thus producing a nearly infinite spectrum of vibrational modes or "tones." Branes & Superstring Theory: If an object only has length, it must be infinitely thin (with no depth), it must therefore be envisioned as a line segment. In string theory, quarks themselves contain fragments of energy that exist on a one-dimensional plane-length. Looking at it backwards: a proton is a composite particle (or hadron) built from two up quarks and one down quark, each quark being a manifestation of the string it represents. *(While the plus sign "+" is a literal mathematical interaction, it can be seen as the interactions between the new "quarks," and effectively acts as a string/particle itself! String theorists call these gluons (g), which are responsible for the strong nuclear force and cannot exist independently (free) from such quantum systems). The result of two up quarks and one down quark produces a proton. However, when a third string that vibrates in a rather different manner (b), acts as a "down" quark, the resulting interaction simplifies as (a+a+b)* or two up quarks and one down quark. If a second string is introduced with the same properties, we now have two (a-vibrational) strings, or basically two "up" quarks. Here is a theoretical example: if a string vibrates (or wiggles) in one manner (a), it could exhibit characteristics of an "up" quark. Gubser, a physics professor at Princeton University, and author of The Little Book of String Theory, sums up the theory rather nicely, asserting that, "String theory aims to be a unifying picture, where each is a different vibrational mode of a string".Ī string's "vibrational mode" is only a fancy way of identifying the manner in which it oscillates. Image credit via MissMJ, Wikimedia Commons. In the eyes of a string theorist, all universal constituents (fermions, quarks and leptons, hadrons, bosons, and force carriers ) are defined by the vibrational mode (and usually orientation) of its string.ĭifferent levels of magnification of matter (1-5), ending with the string level (6). General quantum strings are approximated to be 10 -33Ĭm in length (that's pretty amazingly small). According to string theory, "strings" are tiny bits of pure energy that are the smallest constituents of matter and force interaction in our universe. String theory states that all matter in the universe is composed of tiny 1-dimensional strings, not point particles (which are 0-dimensional in nature). That's where "superstring theory" comes in. However, how can it possibly work? After all, we only experience four dimensions (three of space and one of time), so 26 dimensions is 22 too many. A theory with 26 dimensions, objects with imaginary mass that could ruin the very physics of our universe, and the notion that particles and forces are only excitations of vibrational modes-string theory, and all that it entails, is mind-boggling.
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