Daniel Robbins

When Stephen Hawking described the Hawking radiation emitted by a black hole, he had to use his physical and mathematical intuition, because quantum physics and general relativity aren’t reconciled. One of the major successes of string theory is in offering a complete description of (some) black holes. Hawking radiation takes place when radiation is emitted from a black hole, causing it to lose mass.

General relativity was Einstein’s theory of gravity, published in 1915, which extended special relativity to take into account non-inertial frames of reference — areas that are accelerating with respect to each other. General relativity takes the form of field equations, describing the curvature of space-time and the distribution of matter throughout space-time.

Discovered in the 19th century, the electromagnetic force (or electromagnetism) is a unification of the electrostatic force and the magnetic force. In the mid-20th century, this force was explained in a framework of quantum mechanics called quantum electrodynamics, or QED. In this framework, the electromagnetic force is transferred by particles of light, called photons.

String theory is a type of high-energy theoretical physics, practiced largely by particle physicists. It’s a quantum field theory that describes the particles and forces in our universe based on the way that special extra dimensions within the theory are wrapped up into a very small size (a process called compactification).

Some physicists hope that a “theory of everything,” perhaps even string theory, may provide clear explanations for the underlying physical meaning of quantum physics. Among them, Lee Smolin has cited string theory’s failure to explain quantum physics as a reason to look elsewhere for a fundamental theory of the universe — a view that is certainly not maintained by the majority of string theorists.

In string theory, the multiverse is a theory in which our universe is not the only one; many universes exist parallel to each other. These distinct universes within the multiverse theory are called parallel universes. A variety of different theories lend themselves to a multiverse viewpoint. In some theories, there are copies of you sitting right here right now reading this in other universes and other copies of you that are doing other things in other universes.

Although string theory is a young science, it has had many notable achievements. What follows are some landmark events in the history of string theory: 1968: Gabriele Veneziano originally proposes the dual resonance model. 1970: String theory is created when physicists interpret Veneziano’s model as describing a universe of vibrating strings.

String theory is a work in progress, so trying to pin down exactly what the science is, or what its fundamental elements are, can be kind of tricky. The key string theory features include: All objects in our universe are composed of vibrating filaments (strings) and membranes (branes) of energy. String theory attempts to reconcile general relativity (gravity) with quantum physics.

String theory’s concept of supersymmetry is a fancy way of saying that each particle has a related particle called a superpartner. Keeping track of the names of these superpartners can be tricky, so here are the rules in a nutshell. The superpartner of a fermion begins with an “s,” so the superpartner of an “electron” is the “selectron” and the superpartner of the “quark” is the “squark.