Superstring pro6/15/2023 ![]() ![]() 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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