What Is String Theory?

                       
                                           By: Tsegazeab Beteselassie 

    A few decades ago, a radical theory sends shock waves across the scientific community. The theory is called String theory.You're probably wondering right now," what is String theory?" 

String theory: One of the many strings in an atom.

   String theory is a theory of everything (technically a theory that combines Eisenstein's theory with the quantum  field theory). It says that if you shrink to a quadrillionth of the size of an atom, and then do it again, you'll see vibrating  strings floating inside the atom It sounds like science fiction. But recently, some scientists say it's not. Co-founder of string theory, Michio Kaku says that string theory may be possible. But there were a few flaws in the theory. 

    Albert Einstein went to find the theory but failed. The giants of the 20th century also tried but got lost. The reason they failed is that they don't really know what the theory is. Most string theory specialists have their own theory of everything. None of them can agree because the theory's they have are radically different from each other. But now that they tested all the easy ideas and saw that they were wrong, they now have a new theory that might be the best (and in fact the only) candidate for the theory of everything. Unlike it's rivals, it survived every mathematical challenge thrown at it. Not surprisingly, the theory is radically different from all the other candidates for the theory of everything. The theory is Super String theory. 

Super Symmetry: A diagram on Super Symmetry.

    "What is Super Symmetry?" You might ask. Well, Super Symmetry is a theory that says that for every particle in the universe, there is another invisible particle copy. The only difference is that the Super Symmetry particles are bigger than the original one. The reason Super String theory is the best candidate for the theory of everything is because it has Einstein's theory of gravity in it. It actually needs Einstein's theory or else it won't work. It also uses String theory, being based on subatomic strings vibrating in 10 dimensional space-time fabric. But there is a glaring weak spot. They failed miserably trying to probe the "non-perturbative region". This is extremely important since our whole universe may lie in it. And ultimately, we don't know whether string theory is a theory of every thing, or a theory of nothing! And then duality comes in. It shows an outline of the theory of everything.        

Not knowing what to call it, a physicist named Witten dubbed it, M-theory. In one stroke, M-theory solves all the problems of  the theory, such as why we have 5 super string theories. It may ultimately even solve the question, "where do the strings come from?" 

    When string theory specialists realized that there was five super string theories, they asked themselves, "why is there 5 super symmetry theories?"  Well, the answer is that in the higher dimensions, there are alternate super string theories based on membranes as well as point-particles (also known as super-gravity). In the lower dimensions, then, there must be a whole zoo of them based on different dimensions and membranes. And for the p-dimensional case, some one dubbed it, p-branes (pronounced, pea branes). They were once considered to be a scientific curiosity, no more than a trail that leads to a dead end. But now, we realized that strings, membranes, and p-branes are just different views of the same theory. M-theory unites the 5 super string theories and includes the p-branes as well. Let me explain. Let's say 3 blind men are chasing an elephant. One grabs it's tail and says, "it's a string, it's a string!" Another one grabs the elephants ear (poor elephant) and feeling a 2 dimensional surface (a membrane) says, "no, your wrong, it's a two-brane!" Then the third one grabs the elephant's leg and feeling a 3 dimensional solid says,"no your both wrong, it's a three-brane!" The story explains that the three men are all right, because the tail, the ear, and the leg are all part of the same elephant. 

    In order to understand the theory better, we first have to understand duality. Duality is when two formulas  are equal to each other when they can be showed that they are equal by a certain interchange. This is useful when it is very hard or impossible to solve a equation (formula one). You can find a dual match for the formula and solve it without actually having to actually solve formula one. 

    Physicists have been recently asking," if this string theory is real, then how do you test it?" Well, one way would be to curl six of the ten dimensions so that it resembles the Standard Model a bit. Then, use duality and M-theory to probe it's non-perturbative region. Then, use Super Symmetry to make it fold in the correct fashion, giving the correct masses of quarks and other particles in the Standard Model. 




    Here is my video that explain String Theory....

    And here is another video...

   Email me at Tsegazeab12@gmail.com. Thank you and make sure you subscribe!