The Elegant Universe - M Theory (8/11)

Playlist: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQLfRkzgMUY&feature=PlayList&p=C9F48B6...


A three hour program in three parts for television broadcast in late 2003 on the PBS series NOVA.

The Elegant Universe

Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, Parallel Universes and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory

In theoretical physics, M-theory is an extension of string theory in which 11 dimensions are identified. Because the dimensionality exceeds the dimensionality of five superstring theories in 10 dimensions, it is believed that the 11-dimensional theory unifies all string theories (and supersedes them). Though a full description of the theory is not yet known, the low-entropy dynamics are known to be supergravity interacting with 2- and 5-dimensional membranes.

This idea is the unique supersymmetric theory in eleven dimensions, with its low-entropy matter content and interactions fully determined, and can be obtained as the strong coupling limit of type IIA string theory because a new dimension of space emerges as the coupling constant increases.

Drawing on the work of a number of string theorists (including Ashoke Sen, Chris Hull, Paul Townsend, Michael Duff and John Schwarz), Edward Witten of the Institute for Advanced Study suggested its existence at a conference at USC in 1995, and used M-theory to explain a number of previously observed dualities, sparking a flurry of new research in string theory called the second superstring revolution.

In the early 1990s, it was shown that the various superstring theories were related by dualities, which allow physicists to relate the description of an object in one super string theory to the description of a different object in another super string theory. These relationships imply that each of the super string theories is a different aspect of a single underlying theory, proposed by Witten, and named "M-theory".

Originally the letter M in M-theory was taken from membrane, a construct designed to generalize the strings of string theory. However, as Witten was more skeptical about membranes than his colleagues, he opted for "M-theory" rather than "Membrane theory". Witten has since stated that the interpretation of the M can be a matter of taste for the user of the word "M-theory".

In M-theory we are the shadows on the wall. The `room' is some larger, five-dimensional spacetime and our four-dimensional world is just the boundary of this larger space. If we try to move away from the wall, we are moving into an extra dimension of space - a fifth dimension. In fact, people have recently been trying to think of ways in which we might actually experimentally `probe' this fifth dimension.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Theoretical
• physics
• M-theory
• string
• theory
• 11
• dimensions
• The
• Elegant
• Universe
• Superstrings
• Hidden
• Dimensions
• Quest
• for
• the
• Ultimate
• Theory
• Parallel
• Universes
• Quantum
• Relativity

[kuuulock]

Mmm... bread

[michaeldouw]

@Zee96969696 oh good on you :) me neither... sorry i just assumed you were some dumbshit pothead. My apologies.

[Zee96969696]

@michaeldouw admit it, you don't understand it either, and i don't do drugs or drink

[michaeldouw]

@Zee96969696 perhaps stop smoking marijuana and everything may become clearer...

[Dudeness21]

@Zee96969696 it was already covered by the extra dimensions. each brane occupies a set of dimension analagous to our own but not tthe four were necessarily used to. Or at least not necessarily all of them. It is a little complicated but the trick is to keep finding more and more abot this stuff until you have a kind of mental feeling about it, the pictures start to lose meaning but there are intuitions that form. Good luck I hope you find some answers

[Zee96969696]

this movie is pretty tripy, take marijuana and watch this movie, it would be aa hell of an experience, we are living in bread, lol. But seriously, inside a large membrane there are other membranes? and the membranes are parallel, they do not explan this very well