Researchers Devise the First Experimental Test of Controversial, Confusing String Theory

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Researchers Devise the First Experimental Test of Controversial, Confusing
String Theory
By Rebecca Boyle Posted 09.01.2010 at 12:57 pm

Testing the Theory of Everything This is a 2-D visualization of a Calabi-Yau
manifold. Some string theorists think the extra dimensions of space-time,
which are predicted in string theory, may take this shape. A new study says
string theory can be tested by observing the behavior of entangled quantum
particles. Wikipedia
Is everything in the universe made up of vibrating one-dimensional strings?
For the first time, scientists think they can concretely test string theory,
the mind-blowing "theory of everything" that has dominated physics for the
past two decades. It turns out that string theory predicts the behavior of
entangled quantum particles, which can be tested in a lab - therefore
testing string theory.

String theory elegantly reconciles the otherwise competing rules of quantum
mechanics and general relativity. It's the most widely accepted unified
field theory, but it remains controversial. It basically posits that
electrons and quarks are not objects, but one-dimensional strings, whose
oscillation gives them their observed qualities. The most fun element of
string theory is the requirement that the universe has about a dozen
dimensions, rather than the usual four (length, width, height and time).

M-theory, the dominant version of string theory, holds that the universe is
made up of unfathomably small slices of a 2-dimensional membrane, wriggling
in 11-dimensional space.

These bizarre ideas are widely accepted by many theoretical physicists, but
the problem is that they can't be tested - how do you examine an 11th
dimension? The field has suffered a backlash in recent years partly for this
reason, as some scientists say a theory is not a theory if its predictions
can't be studied in a lab.

Well, now they can, according to professor Mike Duff of the theoretical
physics department at Imperial College London. He is lead author of a paper
to be published tomorrow in Physical Review Letters, which explains how
string theory math can be used to predict quantum entanglement.

Duff said he was at a conference in Tasmania when a colleague presented some
mathematical formulas describing entanglement of multiple quantum bits. The
equations looked familiar. Upon returning home, Duff checked his notebooks
from a few years earlier, and realized the formulas were the same as those
he developed to use string theory to describe black holes.

This is completely unexpected, he said. There is no obvious reason why the
insanely complex mathematics underlying string theory can also be used to
predict the behavior of entangled quantum systems.

"This may be telling us something very deep about the world we live in, or
it may be no more than a quirky coincidence," he said.

Either way, it's useful, he added. Using string theory math, Duff predicted
the pattern that would occur when four quantum bits are entangled with each
other. This can be measured in a lab, and the results will demonstrate
whether string theory actually works.

Right now, the best hope for string theory tests comes from CERN's Large
Hadron Collider, which is designed to find the tiniest elementary particles
that make up matter. It's theoretically possible that LHC experiments will
uncover supersymmetric particles - one element of string theory - or bounce
a graviton into a higher dimension, which could help prove M-theory. But
testing the fuzzy math that predicts these behaviors will be much easier.







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