String Theory
Posted 11 months, 3 weeks ago at 12:22 pm. 0 comments
By now you have probably heard of String Theory. Though do you really understand what it is about? And will it eventually be able to explain many of physics great mysteries? If you think the mathematical structure of Quantum Mechanics is complex, wait till you see the mathematics involved in String Theory. It’s so complex that only a tiny group of scientists can fully understand the mathematics. String Theory has changed into a mainstream subject in a relatively short period of time. That, however, has not made it less controversial. Many questions remain, and as time passes will String Theory really be the answer?
Make sure you read the featured COSMOS magazine article by Peter Woit - it’s definitely worth 10 minutes of your time!
The Standard Model is a quantum theory of fields – of which the electromagnetic field was just one variety – and much of our time as students was spent trying to master the complex mathematical techniques needed to understand these quantum field theories. According to the Standard Model, there are three fundamental forces: electromagnetic, weak and strong. There are also a small number of fundamental particles carrying specified charges that determine which forces they experienced, such as photons for the electromagnetic force, and gluons for the strong nuclear force.
The mathematics of the theory is deep and highly sophisticated; the fields responsible for the forces are basic geometrical quantities that mathematicians call ‘connections’. The excitations and interactions of these fields were also responsible for the fundamental particles. The whole thing satisfied a beautiful equation as presented to the world by British physicist Paul Dirac in 1928.