The God Equation Page 16
Chapter 6: Rise of String Theory: Promise and Problems
My colleague Keiji Kikkawa: Dr. Kikkawa and I are cofounders of a branch of string theory called “string field theory,” which allows us to express the sum total of string theory in the language of fields, resulting in a simple equation a bit over one inch long:
Although this allows us to express all of string theory in compact form, it is not the final formulation of the theory. As we shall see, there are five different types of string theory, each requiring a string field theory. But if we go to the eleventh dimension, all five theories apparently converge into one equation, described by something called M-theory, which includes a variety of membranes as well as strings. At present, because membranes are so hard to work with mathematically, especially in eleven dimensions, no one has been able to express M-theory in a single field theory equation. This, in fact, is one of the major goals of string theory: to find the final formulation of the theory from which we can extract physical results. In other words, string theory is probably not yet in its final form.
“Although the symmetries are hidden”: quoted in Nigel Calder, The Key to the Universe (New York: Viking, 1977), 185.
Soon after M-theory was proposed: More precisely, the duality found by Maldacena was between N = 4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory in four dimensions and type IIB string theory in ten dimensions. This is a highly nontrivial duality, because it shows the equivalence between a gauge theory with Yang-Mills particles in four dimensions and string theory in ten dimensions, which are usually thought to be distinct. This duality showed the deep relationship between gauge theories, which are found in the strong interactions in four dimensions, and ten-dimensional string theory, which is remarkable.
“What you said was so confused”: quoted in William H. Cropper, Great Physicists (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), 257.
“Years of intense effort”: http://www.preposterousuniverse.com/blog/2011/10/18/column-welcome-to-the-multiverse/comment-page-2.
“I find myself a dinosaur”: Sheldon Glashow, with Ben Bova, Interactions (New York: Warner Books, 1988), 330.
“The research worker”: quoted in Howard A. Baer and Alexander Belyaev, Proceedings of the Dirac Centennial Symposium (Singapore: World Scientific Publishing, 2003), 71.
“Beautiful theories have been”: Sabine Hossenfelder, “You Say Theoretical Physicists Are Doing Their Job All Wrong. Don’t You Doubt Yourself?,” Back Reaction (blog), Oct. 4, 2018, http://backreaction.blogspot.com/2018/10/you-say-theoretical-physicists-are.html.
Chapter 7: Finding Meaning in the Universe
“If we do discover a complete theory”: Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time (New York: Bantam Books, 1988), 175.
SELECTED READING
Bartusiak, Marcia. Einstein’s Unfinished Symphony. Yale University Press, 2017.
Becker, Katrin, Melanie Becker, and John Schwarz. String Theory and M-Theory. Cambridge University Press, 2007.
Crease, Robert P., and Charles Mann. The Second Creation: Makers of the Revolution in Twentieth-Century Physics. New York: Macmillan, 1986.
Einstein, Albert. The Special and General Theory. Mineola, New York: Dover Books, 2001.
Feynman, Richard. Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman: Adventures of a Curious Character. New York: W. W. Norton, 2018.
———. The Feynman Lectures on Physics (with Robert Leighton and Matthew Sands). New York: Basic Books, 2010.
Green, Michael, John Schwarz, and Edward Witten. Superstring Theory, vols. 1 and 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987.
Greene, Brian. The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory. New York: W. W. Norton, 2010.
Hawking, Stephen. A Brief History of Time. New York: Bantam, 1998.
———. The Grand Design (with Leonard Mlodinow). New York: Bantam, 2010.
Hossenfelder, Sabine. Lost in Math: How Beauty Leads Physics Astray. New York: Basic Books, 2010.
Isaacson, Walter. Einstein: His Life and Universe. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2008.
Kaku, Michio. Parallel Worlds: A Journey Through Creation, Higher Dimensions, and the Future of the Cosmos. New York: Random House. 2006.
———. Hyperspace: A Scientific Odyssey Through Parallel Universes, Time Warps, and the Tenth Dimension. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.
———. Introduction to String Theory and M-Theory. New York: Springer-Verlag, 1999.
Kumar, Manhit. Quantum: Einstein, Bohr, and the Great Debate About the Nature of Reality. New York: W. W. Norton, 2010.
Lederman, Leon. The God Particle: If the Universe Is the Answer, What Is the Question? New York: Mariner Books, 2012.
Levin, Janna. Black Holes Blues and Other Songs from Outer Space. New York: Anchor Books, 2017.
Maxwell, Jordan. The History of Physics: The Story of Newton, Feynman, Schrodinger, Heisenberg, and Einstein. Independently published, 2020.
Misner, Charles W., Kip Thorne, and John A. Wheeler. Gravitation. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 2017.
Mlodinow, Leonard. Stephen Hawking: A Memoir of Friendship and Physics. New York: Pantheon Books, 2020.
Polchinski, Joseph. String Theory, vols. 1 and 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
Smolin, Lee. The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2006.
Thorne, Kip. Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein’s Outrageous Legacy. New York: W. W. Norton, 1994.
Tyson, Neil de Grasse. Death by Black Hole and Other Cosmic Quandaries. New York: W. W. Norton, 2007.
Weinberg, Steven. Dreams of a Final Theory: The Scientific Search for the Ultimate Laws of Nature. New York: Vintage Books, 1992.
Wilczek, Frank. Fundamentals: Ten Keys to Reality. New York: Penguin Books, 2021.
Woit, Peter. Not Even Wrong: The Failure of String Theory and the Search for Unity in Physical Law. New York: Basic Books, 2006.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
michio kaku is a professor of theoretical physics at the City University of New York, cofounder of string field theory, and the author of several widely acclaimed science books and best sellers, including Beyond Einstein, The Future of Humanity, The Future of the Mind, Hyperspace, Physics of the Future, and Physics of the Impossible. He is the science correspondent for CBS This Morning, the host of the radio programs Science Fantastic and Exploration, and a host of several science TV specials for the BBC and the Discovery and Science Channels.
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