THE STRING THEORY
Since the beginning humans tried to explain their surroundings, it’s something intrinsic, so to satisfy this
need we always made up stories. Over time, we discard and create new stories that fit and could explain
our reality, that’s called theories. The most challenging mystery that might have been posed to humanity
is explaining the universe and how this works.
Consequently, classical physics was born, which was
destined to explain our universe since the smallest particle
is called “the atom”. If you don’t know, the atom was first
proposed by Democritus, he thought it might be the
smallest thing, represented as a point, you get by dividing
an object, it was a theory because he didn’t have methods
of verification. Then, Bohr, said that actually, it’s not a
point, an atom is formed of smaller particles like protons,
neutrons, and electrons. However, what are some of these
subatomic particles made of? It’s said that they’re made of
other smaller particles that are impossible to see. Such as
Leptons, Quarks and Gauge Bossons.
And in my point of view that's where quantum mechanics comes in, seeking to describe the behavior of
particles smaller than the atom, governed more by probabilistic calculations than by the deterministic
laws of classical mechanics. Three forces are acting within the atom: Strong, which keeps the nucleus
together; Weak, which is responsible for certain particles transforming into others and Electromagnetic.
So, on the right, three of the four fundamental forces are explained by quantum mechanics, and on the
other hand, the theory of relativity explains gravity. Einstein worked all his life a way to unify the four
forces but he never got it. It’s insane, It should explain what everything in the universe is made of and
why it is like that. Therefore, the string theory came up thanks to Gabriele Veneziano. Basically, this
theory proposes that subatomic particles are not dots without dimensions, but rather very thin strings
that must measure Plank length, the pixel of the universe. In
addition, any particle is formed of a string that vibrates in different
frequencies and moves following a determined pattern in
multidimensional space. Such as the vibration of a guitar string that
determines which note is heard. And what about multidimensional
space? It’s known that the string moves in 10 dimensions, how is
this possible if the space-time only has 4 dimensions? Well, the
theory also proposes that these extra dimensions are hidden in the
smallest scale possible.
The strings might exist in a multidimensional space called the Calabi-Yau space. If it’s
real, it would be an explanation of why some particles disappear and appear out of
nowhere. The strings would be made of energy, so the matter too,
which is consistent with the relativistic equation that energy is
equal to mass times the speed of light squared. Some strings were
Calabi-Yau space closed may be Graviton particles responsible for mediating gravity,
unfortunately, maths didn’t work with this new particle and that’s
a huge problem because we can explain everything with maths but this is not the
case if we create graviton. Though maths doesn’t match string theory, it’s called string theory maths the
one which could help us to solve mysteries like black holes or the paradox of information loss.
The string theory still is highly debated among scientists, but taking into account all the information, one
could say that if it’s real, I’d have a wonderful implication, everything is the result of strings vibrating in
different frequencies so every object or living being can be a song and the hole universe would be an
incommensurable symphonia. Okay, Let’s be realistic, It could be that the string theory is not the theory
of everything, at least, like the theory of the dot particle, it might turn into a “story” extremely useful.
We haven’t discovered the true nature of reality, nevertheless, we still are creating new “stories” to find
out it. Luckily, we’ll get it.
D’ ALEXANDER REQUEJO SILVA, AG1 PORTFOLIO 2