How they gave birth to the By 1970s String theory in the macroscopic level. But
was only studied by few in 1995 scientist had done
String theory?
In 1968, a young Italian
physicist named Gabriele
Veneziano was searching
for a set of equations that
explained strong nuclear
force, a force that binds
together the nucleus of
every atom with protons
and neutrons. While he was
engaged in the work, he
came across a book named
‘History of Mathematics’.
In this book, he found out
an equation first written by
Leonhard Euler. He found
that the particular equation
successfully described the
strong force. Later Leonard
Susskind studied more about
this ancient formula and
gave birth to ‘String Theory’.
But back then, the standard
model was so popular and
well established among
the scientists. Therefore,
researches about string
theory kept their silence for a
few years. When the standard
model could not explain
gravity, scientist looked back
at the String theory.
physicists, and they found
strange massless particle
and a lot of mathematical
anomalies suggested by the
theory. John Henry Schwarz
suggested that the massless
particle was the graviton.
Later, he had joined with
Michael Green and proved
that the theory is free from
anomalies. Then they had a
theory that described all four
forces without mathematical
anomalies.
What is the idea of the
String theory?
The simple idea of the String
theory is that elementary
particles are made up of
small open and closed strings
that vibrate at different
frequencies. Because of that
frequency, it shows different
properties in nature such
as charge and the mass.
The size of these strings can
be imagined through the
following example. When an
atom is as large as the solar
system, a string is as small
as a tree. This theory tries
to explain a relationship
between quantum mechanics
and the general relativity.
The theory suggests that
it requires 10 dimensions
to work with. We live in a
4-dimensional space. Namely,
3 directional vectors and the
time. Scientists suggest that
other 6 dimensions are really
small and we can't see them
a lot of researches and a
lot about String theory had
been discovered. And there
had been 5 different string
theories.
In 1995 all the theoretical
physicists had gathered and
discussed the matter. Edward
Witten had come up with a
solution. He proved that the
5 different theories were not
actually different theories,
but they were 5 ways of
looking at the same theory.
Finally, the string theory was
unified and Edward Witten
had named it the ‘M theory’.
M stood for Magic, Mistry or
Matrix.
Before the M theory, string
theory had only spoken
about 10 dimensions. But
when Edward Witten came
up with the M theory, it
suggested that there are 11
dimensions in the universe.
This allowed the strings not
only to move but to stretch
like
membranes.
With
enough energy, it can grow up
to enormous sizes, such as a
universe. That suggested that
GAUGE Magazine University of Peradeniya
PAGE| 41