The Unifying theory of the Universe: the theory of everythingness

Discussion in 'Physics & Math' started by string theorist, Jul 14, 2003.

  1. string theorist Registered Member

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    I first heard of the work on the Unifying Theory when scanning briefly through Stephen Hawking's A brief hisotry of time. Basically, for those of you who do know know, the work on the theory is basically combining the Einstein's General Theory of Relativity with the String theory of Quantum Mechanics. As you might know, the two opposing theories are the leading concepts of our universe...Einstein's theory focused on the universe at large, and of course, gravity, while Quantum Mechanics, with its string theory..*shudders* focused on the small (ie..particles, atoms, quarks, etc)...QM also described in detail the nature of electromageticism, weak nuclear force and strong nuclear force...(over-all, the two theories described the four forces of the universe)...But which is more sufficient at explaning our universe?

    Einstein's theories called for an empty space in the vacumn...while qm said empty isn't empty..it's full of tiny particles. But...to get a complete picture of the universe we must combine the four forces..therefore combining the two theories. but how? combining the theories (slicing, adding, expanding) seemed to give our physicist infinities..mathematical nonsense!...and well, math and physics don't work well with infinities!!

    but through this barrier, the rewards are great. once we have a complete picture of the universe, imagine the possibilities! the unifying theory would be like a rule book...it will tell us the exact state of the universe..say..30 seconds after the big bang...or its state 12 billion years ago..or even ahead into the future. imagine, we might be our own masters! what are your thoughts on this?
     
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  3. chroot Crackpot killer Registered Senior Member

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    My thoughts are that you should close your mouth and keep studying.

    String theory is not a part of quantum mechanics. General relativity and quantum field theory are the incompatible theories, and string theory is one of the candidate unifications of the two. The other is loop quantum gravity.

    Further, quantum mechanics says nothing about the strong, weak, and electromagnetic fields. You're looking for quantum field theories, such as QED and QCD.

    Even further, the state of the universe 30 seconds after the big bang is well understood, as is its state 12 billion years ago.

    - Warren
     
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  5. TheXeelee Registered Member

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    What about M-Theory? I read something about M-Theory in one of Hawking's books but I really don't think I understand it. How does M-Theory fit in with respect to General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics?

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  7. chroot Crackpot killer Registered Senior Member

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    M-theory is essentially a multidimensional extrapolation of string theory.

    - Warren
     
  8. TheXeelee Registered Member

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    Oh, wow. Is that where the idea of our universe being an 11-dimensional object comes from?
     
  9. string theorist Registered Member

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    Hey, have some pity of a layman. My knowledge of the subject isn't as broad or as expert as i would like it to be...but that's why im going to study it this fall!!

    Hm. And i read hawking's book quite along ago..so i scraped the bits of knowledge up from what i remembered. anyhow, i thought the string theory is the main section [component] of Quantum Mechanics.

    However, I would have to disagree with you on your notion that we've already readily understood the state of the universe 30 seconds when it was formed or 12 billion years ago. The Big bang is the leading (and accepted) theory about the origin of our universe...yet what evidence do we have to proof the exact state of the universe 30 seconds later? We haven't any. There make be scientific speculations (theories) but you may never know exactly...unless you unify the theories. From last i heard, astronomers predicted the universe to be about 13 billions years old. Everything might've formed in the first 30 seconds, or the universe might've used its 13 billion years span to get to the current state. And observation of the back to the big bang...if we ever get that far may be deceiving.

    Also, recent improvements on the Hubble and the Chandra X-ray telescopes had allowed astronomer to look deeper into the past..about 6 billion years back. hence, it is highly unlikely that our knowledge of our universe 12 billion years ago is complete.
     
  10. James R Just this guy, you know? Staff Member

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    A good introduction to the ideas of string theory is Brian Greene's book <i>The Elegant Universe</i>.
     
  11. Crisp Gone 4ever Registered Senior Member

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    Hi string theorist,

    Who said anything about knowing the exact state ? We will never know the exact state, because up to about 300.000 years after the big bang, the universe was filled with highly energetic radiation, blocking our view of the past forever.

    What we do know is that the physics we currently have (standard model and all its extensions) should accurately describe what happened 10^(-30) second after the big bang (read: there are good models of what happens afterwards). It's only what happened before that we have no ideas for.

    Bye!

    Crisp
     
  12. string theorist Registered Member

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    Thanks crisp, for your input,
    I agree with you on the notion that our understanding of the universe's past is quite misty. Our only hope is the unify theory that Stephen Hawking and Murray Gell-Mann (Caltech) are workng on. As for the exact state of the universe 30 seconds into the big bang, it was, chroot who said

     

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