The Elegant Universe notes

Hosted by Brian Greene

This is a recent documentary about String Theory.

Disc 1: Einstein’s Dream

String theory: All particles and forces in the universe are made of unimaginably small “strings”
of energy (either like rubber bands or straight rubber strings). Their manner of vibration
determines their properties.
Physics aims for a unification theory—a single equation that will explain the nature of all
phenomena (forces and particles) in the universe.
Isaac Newton made the first contribution to unification when he proposed that the same force
that pulled objects to the ground on Earth also affected celestial bodies by making them orbit
each other. He named this force “gravity,” and he thus unified one property of the heavens and
Earth.
Newton developed equations that accurately measured gravity, but he had no idea how gravity
worked.
Einstein studied light. He found that nothing could exceed the speed of light. This contradicted
Newton’s belief that gravity’s effect was instantaneous across any distance.
Einstein realized that heavy objects like stars warped the fabric of space time, like a person
standing in the middle of a trampoline [picture the literal meaning of “gravity well”]. The
sensation of gravity is our perception of warped space time.
Gravity waves travel at the speed of light and no faster. This led to Einstein’s Theory of General
Relativity and invalidated Newton’s older idea about the instantaneous speed of gravity.
Electricity and magnetism are related: A strong electrical discharge produces a measurable
magnetic field, and rotating magnets can produce electricity. In the 1800’s, they were unified into
a single force described by four, simple equations.
In Einstein’s mid-life, gravity and electromagnetism were the only known forces. He devoted his
remaining years to unifying these two forces with a single equation. String theory currently
strives for the same goal.
However, gravity has always been a problem since its mysterious weakness sets it apart from all
other forces. We think of gravity as being very strong, but the entire Earth’s gravitational pull on
a set of keys can be overpowered by the attraction to a small magnet above. The EM force is
billions of times stronger than gravity.
At the atomic level, gravity has almost no effect on particles, which is totally different from how
it behaves in the macro world we know.
In the 1920’s, subatomic particles like protons, neutrons and electrons were discovered by Niels
Bohr and his colleagues. Gravity and electromagnetism could not explain how nuclei held
together or why radioactive decay occurred.
Bohr’s team developed quantum mechanics, which accurately described forces and events at the
subatomic level.
The laws in the quantum world are totally different from those in the macro-world. Events
cannot be accurately predicted, and instead, can at best be assigned probabilities. Particle
movements are random.

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Quantum mechanics suggests that all possibilities might happen, but across many different
universes. (If the odds of event A are 1/1000, then A will occur in one universe and the other 999
events in 999 others) It also proves that particles and even large objects can pass through other,
seemingly solid objects, though this is a low probability event. [If you walked into a wall
repeatedly for a couple billion years, you would, at some point, spontaneously pass through.]
Einstein viewed the universe as orderly and predictable and disliked the uncertain implications of
quantum mechanics. We now know that Einstein was wrong and quantum mechanics is valid at
the subatomic level.
Towards the end of his life, Einstein was regarded by many physicists as a “has-been” who was
out of touch with modern science.
Theoretical physicists used quantum mechanics to discover two new forces: The strong nuclear
force, which explains how neutrons and protons stick together in nuclei, and the weak nuclear
force, which describes how neutrons turn into protons, releasing beta-radiation in the process.
Einstein died without unifying all the forces under a single theory.
For a time afterwards, physicists used either general relativity or quantum mechanics depending
on what scale they were examining. Physicists simply lived with the discrepancy.
We will never be able to understand black holes without resolving this dichotomy: Black holes
are very small, which places them in the realm of quantum mechanics, but they are also very
massive, which means general relativity should be used.
String theory could unite science at all scales.
Problematically, if strings are real, they are much smaller than even atoms and probably can’t be
seen. Testing the string theory hypothesis might therefore prove impossible.
String theory makes elegant sense, so many physicists believe it to be true even without
evidence.
[Interesting instance of human faith proving its value in the end]

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Disc 2: String’s the thing

At the moment of the Big Bang, the universe was both very small and very dense, which is a
problem since general relativity and quantum mechanics can’t describe physics under such
conditions.
To understand the universe, the two theories must be unified. Scientists think string theory can
do this.
The subatomic world is very chaotic and random. Events do not occur with any certainty, and a
particle’s location can never be pinpointed. Time is even not linear.
But space-time on human scales and bigger is orderly and predictable, as described by Einstein’s
theory of relativity.
Problematically, if string theory is right, the strings are so small that they can never be observed.
Strings can stretch, contract, wiggle, and vibrate.
Particle accelerators smash atoms into their constituent parts, revealing around 30 new sub-
subatomic particles (β particle, β1 particle, etc.).
Outside of string theory, it was theorized that not only were atoms constructed of these
subatomic particles, but some of the latter were “messenger particles” that traveled between
atoms as packets of force. Electromagnetism, for example, is the mutual attraction between two
particles with opposite charges, and is generated by a two-way exchange of EM messenger
particles. The same is true for the strong and weak forces.
Under the extremely hot conditions of the Big Bang, the EM and W forces are indistinguishable
and become the electroweak force. It is believed that at even hotter, earlier temperatures, the S
force would also unify with them. This achieved further unification of the forces and became
known as the Standard Model.
However, the Standard Model did not explain gravity.
String theory predicts the existence of the tachyon, which travels faster than light.
String theory found the gravity particle, called a graviton—which in fact is a string—but posits
that it is so many orders of magnitude smaller than an atom that it is massless.
String theory, once refined and rid of errors, could explain all of the forces, not just gravity.
The strings are made of energy and are incredibly small: If an atom were the size of the solar
system, a string would be the size of a tree.
Depending upon how a string vibrates, it will either form into solid particles or become a
massless force.
String theory unifies general relativity and quantum mechanics. All forces and matter are unified
under one theory.
Curled-up extra dimensions: All objects in our universe exist in more than four dimensions, but
on such small scales that they are invisible to humans. Only if you were smaller than a quark
would you be able to see how particles extend on extra dimensional axes (we can see X, Y and Z
and perceive time), and even then, it would only be by a small amount. Instead of extending
straight out as macro objects to in 3-D axes, small particles would extend into these additional
dimensions in a constricted, curled-up manner. (i.e.—if you have a lot of length in the 5th
dimension, you extend outwards into a complex series of tight curls whose total distance from
you is incredibly small)
Einstein believed there was one extra dimension.
Multidimensionality is central to string theory. It says there are a total of eleven.

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All of the extra dimensions are very small and curled. Their complex shapes influence the way
the strings vibrate.
The strings determine the constants of nature, which enable life and reality as we know it.
By the late 1980’s, there were five different string theories, each of these were mathematically
valid. This suggested that one described our universe and the others described other universes,
meaning multiple universes existed.

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Disc 3: Welcome to the 11th dimension

String theory is encompassed by theoretical physics.

The fabric of space is not always structured as it appears to us. It can have undetectable folds that
place two, seemingly distant points close together. Einstein theorized that wormholes could exist
between such points, allowing a shortcut through space for a traveler.

Einstein believed that, while space could be folded and stretched, it could not be ripped.
Wormholes therefore cannot be created—only encountered naturally.
String theorists disagree and believe that tears in space at the subatomic level happen all the
time, but they are immediately neutralized by strings, which leave tubelike “wakes” behind
themselves as they travel, containing the tears.
According to string theory, we might be able to create artificial wormholes.
The five different string theories have very different mathematics.
M Theory unified the five string theories and showed they were all describing the same thing.
Strings need to move in more than three dimensions, so more (11 total) must exist.
M Theory added the 11th dimension. This allows strings to stretch into membranes called
“branes.” (Just imagine flattening out a doughnut-shaped piece of putty into a much larger, flatter
circle with a pinhole in the middle) With enough energy, a brane could grow as big as the
universe.
Our entire universe might be separated from parallel universes by a giant brane. Other universes
might be similar to ours or might have totally different laws of physics.

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M Theory states that all of the non-gravity forces are represented by U-shaped strings, with both
ends forever anchored into a giant brane that spans the length of our universe. Gravity is the only
force comprised of O-shaped closed strings called “gravitons.” Since gravitons are not tethered
to the brane, they can float freely into parallel universes, greatly diluting the strength of gravity
from our perspective. The vast majority of gravity’s force is bleeding out of our universe.
Theoretically, thanks to gravity’s properties, we could use gravity waves to communicate with
any life forms that may exist in parallel universes.
The Laws of Physics do not apply to the Universe right before the Big Bang.
Some physicists believe that the Big Bang occurred when our brane collided with a massive,
parallel brane from a different dimension, causing a huge discharge of energy at the points of
impact and spreading outwards. (Imagine two bedsheets hanging on two parallel clotheslines,
with one blown into the other and then the second rippling from the impact) This may have
happened many times in the past and may happen indefinitely into the future. No one is sure if
this is the case, as the normal laws of physics [like the Second Law of Thermodynamics?]
wouldn’t be useful to understanding it.
Particle accelerators are used to smash atoms into subatomic particles. It is hoped that this could
be used to liberate a free graviton from an atom, which, thanks to its closed loop structure, would
immediately disappear into another dimension, producing a momentary gravity flux at the point
of impact. Proving the existence of gravitons in this way could validate string theory, which has
thus far been untestable.
String theory implies the existence of supersymmetry, which means that all particles (protons,
neutrons and electrons) should have much heavier antiparticles called “sparticles.” CERN will be
able to determine whether sparticles exist.
String theory makes a lot of sense and thus still has appeal to physicists, but it could still be
proven totally wrong.