![]() This idea was superceded by the 1973 discovery of the true theory of the strong interaction, quantum chromodynamics, but a small handful of theorists regarded string theory as a compelling idea and continued to develop it. It was first developed between 19 as a theory of the strong interaction: mesons such as the pion behave in some respects like open strings. The idea of building blocks that are one-dimensional, rather than zero-dimensional points, is rather novel, and it has had an odd history. String theory is believed to solve all of these problems. Further, ultimately matter and gravity should not be described by two unrelated theories but should be understood in a unified way. General relativity, when combined with quantum mechanics, suffers from several problems and paradoxes when applied to very short distances or to black holes. The Standard Model is based on a complicated pattern of particles and forces, similar to the Periodic Table of the elements, and this pattern must be explained. ![]() In the twentieth century, very successful theories of each were discovered: the Standard Model of matter and the general theory of relativity. Two of the central questions in physics are the nature of matter and the nature of gravity. This theory has not yet been experimentally tested, but it has attracted the attention of theoretical physicists from a wide range of fields because it unifies many of the central concepts of physics and resolves a number of longstanding theoretical problems. It is based on the idea that the basic building blocks of nature are strings, one-dimensional objects of zero thickness, which form either closed loops or open curves (Figure 1). It would be fantastic to demonstrate that there is actually a link between these seemingly disconnected questions which allows to resolve the puzzles appearing at both sides.String theory is a proposed unified theory of fundamental physics, incorporating both particle physics and gravity. "After all, there is only one set of laws of nature and this set should be able to apply to all kinds of questions including what happens when we collide particles at fantastically high energies or what happens when particles fall into a black hole. This lets us bridge the gap between theoretical predictions and experiments more easily."Īfter having demonstrated that their ideas are capable of resolving long-standing problems in particle physics, the consortium is currently exploring the resulting implications of their new laws at the level of black holes. ![]() In other words: nobody ever observed strings in experiments, but particles are things that people definitely see at LHC experiments. Our idea uses the physical principles that are already tested experimentally. "For scientists, this alternate theory is attractive to use because it has been extremely difficult to connect string theory to experiments. This particle physics framework is also verified experimentally, for example, at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN." "We demonstrate that the idea that everything consists of point particles could still fit with quantum gravity, without including strings. "We show that it is still possible to explain gravity using quantum mechanics without using the laws of string theory at all," says theoretical physicist Frank Saueressig. However, a new demonstration by theoretical physicists at Radboud University now shows that string theory is not the only way to do this. Since its introduction, string theory has been the most widespread theoretical framework that is thought to complete Einstein's general theory of relativity to a theory of quantum gravity. According to this so-called " string theory," everything around us is formed not by point particles, but by strings: one dimensional objects that vibrate. In the 1970s, physicists proposed a new set of physics principles to address this problem, extending the laws proposed by the general theory of relativity. As of today, physicists have severe difficulties to reconcile the two theories to explain gravity on both the largest and smallest scale. Though these two theories have allowed us to explain every fundamental physical phenomenon observed, they also contradict each other. On the other hand, quantum mechanics is a theory that describes the physical properties of nature at the smallest scale of atoms and subatomic particles. When we observe gravity at work in our universe, such as the motion of planets or light passing close to a black hole, everything seems to follow the laws written down by Einstein in his theory of general relativity.
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