The Magic Cube of String Theory: String Theory, also known as M-Theory, generalises the main theoretical pillars of 20th century Theoretical Physics in that it is a consistent description in the case where all three fundamental constants of nature (G, h and c) are turned on.
Peter Bouwknegt, Alex Flournoy, David Botman, Josh Garretson, Peggy Kao and Madeleine Smith
String Theory is a consistent description of the physics of the
very small (as described by Quantum Mechanics) and that of the very
large (General Relativity), and thus is a candidate for the elusive
"Theory of Everything". That is, a model of the universe that unifies
the four known fundamental interactions into one coherent and
consistent picture.
String Theory is based on the premise that the fundamental
building blocks of matter are not point-like particles but are
actually tiny pieces of vibrating string, which can be either open or
closed. Surprisingly, the spectrum of such quantized strings contains
both a massless spin-2 excitation, which can be identified with the
graviton, (i.e. the force field of gravity) and massless spin-1
excitations, which ultimately need to be identified with the gauge
bosons of the standard model. Hence one could say that String Theory
predicts both gravity and gauge theory! Other predictions of String
Theory are that we live in a 10-dimensional spacetime, supersymmetry,
the existence of a holographic principle, and the Bekenstein-Hawking
black hole entropy formula.
Over the past 10-15 years a coherent picture has emerged in which
the five previously thought to be distinct (super) String Theories
are now understood to be just different manifestations of one
underlying theory, known as M-theory, related by a web of so-called
dualities.
Scientists at the ANU, in close collaboration with both physics
and mathematics colleagues at other Australian Universities as well
as overseas, predominantly work on the foundational aspects of String
Theory/M-theory. This involves understanding and developing the
mathematics behind these dualities (and leads to modern fields such
as noncommutative geometry) with the ultimate aim of unraveling the
physical principles behind M-theory.
Research Highlight Poster
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