Superstring theory useful for experimental physics
October 30, 2009
Superstring theory requires many dimensions that are folded into each other.
Superstring theory aims to explain the laws of physics from extremely small strings in various states. Theoretical superstring theory is therefore normally not considered to be particularly relevant for practical particle physics experiments.
However two researchers at the Niels Bohr International Academy (Denmark) have, together with a colleague from the French research institute Saclay, shown how superstring theory can be used to infer relations between processes, which can also be studied at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the experiment at CERN. The results are published in Physical Review Letters.
In superstring theory, particles are replaced by string states. The string should be understood as a wave, whereas the particles are different vibrational states. Superstring theory consists of cascades of particle states, all with increasing energies - energies that are so incomprehensibly high that no experiment would be able to reach them. Therefore there are no realistic possibilities of observing them in particle accelerators.
The group of particles with the lowest possible energy are exactly those particles, which can be created by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the experiment at CERN in Geneva. If relations between all of the states of superstrings can be deduced, then relations between processes that can be observed at the LHC will have been derived simultaneously.
Particle physicists Emil Bjerrum-Bohr and Poul Henrik Damgaard from the Niels Bohr International Academy and Pierre Vanhove from Saclay in France have, based on these observations, demonstrated how a set of surprising relations between LHC processes can be proven with the help of string theory.
Normally it would require more conventional methods from particle physics to derive such relations. The astonishing observation is that the new relations between processes at the LHC can be derived in a quick and elegant way from superstring theory, while no one yet has been able to do so directly from particle physics.
After the repairs in the tunnel of the LHC accelerator at CERN, the experiment is currently warming up again - or rather, cooling down (the experiment requires superconducting currents and therefore large quantities of liquid helium). Poul Henrik Damgaard and Emil Bjerrum-Bohr will be responsible for developing the theoretical portion of the new centre DISCOVERY at the Niels Bohr Institute, which has been established by the Danish National Research Foundation. The new results for the LHC-processes, which the two researchers have derived from superstring theory, will play a central role in future work.
More information: http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v103/e161602
Provided by Niels Bohr Institute
Oct 03, 2006 |
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If they've math, why the heck they didn't plot graphs of some attractive functions? So far I didn't see any realistic 3D model of string - the only picture of strings which someone can get on the web is my very own one.
How could you get a 3D model of a string, seeing as they vibrate in 10 dimensional space. One way of dealing with this extra dimensions is not to try to visualize higher dimensions at all, but just to think of them as extra numbers in the equations that describe the way the world works.
Have a look at 6D Calabi-Yau shapes which can exprss higher dimensional forms:
http://en.wikiped...manifold
It's just too complicated as a layman to wrap your head around. So you must think in terms of equations which are even more complicated. This is why we with only general science knowledge can't expect to have it explained in terms of pretty pictures.
"Proven"? Not "modelled"?
And, please, what "surprising relations"?
Yes we could, but that wouldn't give the "realistic 3D model of string" as Alexa asked for.
Like an animated autostereogram, you may by-pass some 'common sense' limits with elegant illusion...
You should read "The Fabric of the Cosmos" by Brian Greene. It sums the whole thing up in a pretty straightforward way, with some semi-helpful diagrams and analogies.
I am reading that book currently, I love it, it is so good. I recommend it to anyone that has an interest in physics that wants something a little more in depth than something for complete novices but also something that can explain it in a way that doesn't require a Ph.D. You WILL need some knowledge of the Simpsons though :)