Superstrings : It’s a Theory That May Unlock Fundamental Secrets of Nature

Not long after Albert Einstein published his theory of relativity 71 years ago, physicists began searching for something they call TOE--or Theory of Everything.

Now they think they are on the brink of that discovery with a theory called superstrings.

The concept seeks to illustrate the interrelationship among the four basic forces of nature--gravity, electromagnetism and the quantum strong and weak forces. These forces are responsible for all things in nature.

Physicist John Schwarz of Caltech, who developed superstring theory with another theoretician in London, has set the scientific community astir with the concept.

Single Force

Superstring theory grows out of the notion that prior to the Big Bang--the supposed catastrophic explosion that created the cosmos--only one force existed. According to that idea, Schwarz said, the single force then split into four.

“Superstring theory is a proposed mathematical theory of elementary particles which is based on three new ideas,” the physicist said, that show how the forces of nature are all intimately related.

Superstrings define the forces of nature not as point-like elementary particles such as tiny gravitons that transmit gravity or electromagnetic photons that transmit light, but as infinitesimally small one-dimensional loops and strings of energy.

These invisible loops and strings would also include the atomic strong force, responsible for holding together protons and neutrons in an atom, and the weak force, which is the key in radioactive decay.

The loops and strings, according to Schwarz, are so intimately linked that they indicate there was just one force prior to the Big Bang.

He said the strings may be curled, packed into tiny balls of energy and occupy up to 10 dimensions, changing current concepts of space and time.

Schwarz also theorizes that because superstrings are not points but oscillating, vibrating strings--one-billionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a centimeter long--their rotation, configuration and interaction would determine the force they represent.

But proving the configurations that the loops and strings create requires development of a new branch of mathematics.

“A proper description of superstrings is not possible in the conventional language used for describing geometry now,” he said. “There are hints that we need to develop a new type of geometry in which strings, rather than points, play a fundamental role. This hasn’t been done yet so the idea is still a little vague.

“All over the world physicists and string mathematicians are trying to develop the geometry, much in the same way physicists required the cooperation of mathematicians for all of the important developments in physics over the centuries.”

Schwarz cited Einstein’s need for the development of differential geometry to help explain the theory of relativity in 1915.

‘The End of the Line’

“It seems to me if you are committed to working (in the area of) elementary particles, this is the most exciting place to be,” he said. “This is the branch of science that tries to answer the most fundamental questions about nature.

“Superstrings offer the possibility of being the end of the line.

“We’ll have to digest the meaning of the equations. It will take a lot of work and may be all we need to know about the origins of the universe and the Big Bang explosion.”

Schwarz said superstrings could ultimately provide the tool to “understand the physics that controlled the universe at the very beginning.”