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SELECTED READINGS FOR THE FOREWORD__________________________________________________________________________
String theory was proposed in the late sixties in order to describe the strong interaction taking place in atomic nuclei. After having been discarded by quantum chromodynamics, it reappeared in the early eighties; this time as a quantized theory of gravity and a unified theory of physics. Today, forty years after its initial introduction, superstring theory is one of the most intense areas of research in theoretical high energy physics.
*******You can read this blog for free! Please, do not copy its content.*******To illustrate the level of acceptance that the theory enjoys among physicists, consider that in the last fifteen years the third most cited article in high energy physics is a decade old proposal relating superstring theory and particle physics in an intricate way. The proposal of this paper, known as Maldacena’s conjecture or duality, comes just behind the renowned paper of Weinberg and that of Kobayashi and Maskawa, two fundamental components of the standard model of particle physics.[source] Currently this article is not only cited by string theorists but also by many particle physicists and cosmologists. The same can be said about other revolutionary ideas such as the (Antoniadis-) Arkani-Hamed-Dimopoulos-Dvali proposal on large extra dimensions and Randall-Sundrum cosmological models.
*******You can read this blog for free! Please, do not copy its content.*******Another sign of its broad approval is the fact that the European Union, in collaboration with other states, from the United States of America to Armenia, is spending several billion euros on a high technology complex (the Large Hadron Collider at the European Centre for Particle Physics, CERN, near Geneva), that is expected, among other things, to reveal two of the fundamental ingredients of superstring theory: supersymmetry and extra dimensions. Everywhere we find evidence that string theory is well thought of among scientists. It is remarkable that David Gross, an influential string theorist and one of the creators of quantum chromodynamics, was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize for physics, something highly significant if we take into account the influence and authority that a Nobel Prize provides in the world of science.
But the interest in superstring theory goes far beyond the borders of the physics community, involving other actors that in turn inevitably influence its institutional and intellectual evolution. For instance, since the theory involves fundamental research in high energy physics, it allows a large number of physicists to investigate areas with strong military ties such as nuclear physics, without involving them directly in warlike projects. This is one of the reasons why the theory enjoys open political attention and support. In addition to the previous case of the LHC, another example is the string theory group of Teheran. Thanks to generous political and economical support, in a relatively short period of time they have succeeded in creating a solid and respected group. Moreover, researchers in string theory teach courses that directly involve nuclear physics: quantum and statistical mechanics, quantum field theory, particle physics, etc.
Besides the curiosity among non-string theory physicists and political strategists, there is wide evidence that in most Western societies the theory is very popular. Confirmation of this is supplied by the great number of articles appearing regularly in newspapers and popular scientific magazines, as well as best-selling books and TV programmes on the subject. Stephen Hawking, not a string theorist but a strong supporter of a final theory (do not forget that the last chapter of his A Brief History of Time is devoted to string theory), was the first to benefit from the mass media success.
I don’t think anyone, my publishers, my agent, or myself, expected the book to do anything like as well as it did. It was in the London Sunday Times bestseller list for 237 weeks, longer than any other book (apparently, the Bible and Shakespeare aren’t counted). It has been translated into something like forty languages and has sold about one copy for every 750 men, women, and children in the world. As Nathan Myhrvold of Microsoft (a former post-doc of mine) remarked: I have sold more books on physics than Madonna has on sex.[source]The first true string theorist to become well known for his public explanations of the theory was Michio Kaku:
Kaku, a professor of theoretical physics at the City University of New York, has authored nine books, including Hyperspace: A Scientific Odyssey Through Parallel Universes, Time Warps and the Tenth Dimension and Visions: How Science Will Revolutionize the 21st Century. He has appeared on countless TV programmes, including Nightline, The Larry King Show and 60 Minutes, as well as in several PBS documentaries. Dr. Kaku has also been featured on networks such as TLC, BBC, TechTV and the SciFi Channel.[source]
More recently, string theorist Brian Greene, author of the best-selling The Elegant Universe, has been acclaimed as ‘‘the most popular science writer alive.’’
The popularity of his books has resulted in many media appearances, including Charlie Rose, The Colbert Report, The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, The Century with Peter Jennings, CNN, TIME, Nightline in Primetime, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, and The Late Show with David Letterman.[source]
From these quotations it is clear that string theory is in fact very popular. But why is this?
String theorists and in some sense the interested lay public are sure of what Italian physicist Daniele Amati once said: ‘‘String theory is a 21st-century physics that had fallen by chance into the 20th century.’’[source] This sentence subtlety implies that the theory is a sort of otherworldly creation without any connection to the social and historical context in which the theory has developed. My objective is to report partially on the complex web of factors that have contributed to the constitution and actual strength of superstring theory, undoubtedly one of the most exciting and controversial theories of the twentieth century.
String theorists and in some sense the interested lay public are sure of what Italian physicist Daniele Amati once said: ‘‘String theory is a 21st-century physics that had fallen by chance into the 20th century.’’[source] This sentence subtlety implies that the theory is a sort of otherworldly creation without any connection to the social and historical context in which the theory has developed. My objective is to report partially on the complex web of factors that have contributed to the constitution and actual strength of superstring theory, undoubtedly one of the most exciting and controversial theories of the twentieth century.
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SELECTED READINGS FOR THE FOREWORD
SELECTED READINGS FOR THE FOREWORD
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My exploration into the history of superstring theory will consist of a set of seven essays. In the first essay I try to decipher how superstring theorists have reached what they widely consider to be conclusive results, or facts. Here I argue that this involves complex sociological processes where insiders as well outsiders, experts and non-experts, have a role to play. The second essay is devoted to elucidating the origin of the musical metaphor frequently employed by string theorists: the violin string. My approach relies on the historical relationship that physics has had with music for more than two millennia, as well as on more recent events. Why superstring theorists believe that their construct is beautiful and how this has influenced the discussion on the possible experimental verification of the theory is the subject of the third essay. In order to clarify this, an overview of the concept of beauty as understood in other theories of twentieth-century physics will be examined. In light of the sociological processes seen in the previous essays, the fourth essay reconsiders creativity in science; I believe string theory to be but one illustrative case. The intention is to show that the development of string theory, like any other human creation, has been a collaborative process in which a great number of people have taken part; and not just experts. The next essay deals with string theory as a hybrid subject, where different subcultures have converged. This dynamic approach shows that string theory, even in its most fundamental claims, cannot be defined once and for all. What string theory is is a permanently mutating question. (Essay 5 was not published in this website.) The sixth essay proposes a very subtle connection between string theory and Western visual culture. This essay suggests a possible way in which our modern visual culture has contributed to the propagation and wide acceptance of string theory. Finally, the last essay considers broader political and social factors that in my opinion have fostered the development and acceptance of superstrings. The context is that of the last two decades of the twentieth century. (Essay 7 was not published in this website.)
Oswaldo Zapata Marín.
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SELECTED READINGS FOR THE FOREWORD
SELECTED READINGS FOR THE FOREWORD
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