Daniel Robbins

The multiverse is a theory that suggests our universe is not the only one, and that 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.Not all physicists really believe that these universes exist.

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.

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.

Many physicists feel that string theory will ultimately be successful at resolving the hierarchy problem of the Standard Model of particle physics. Although it is an astounding success, the Standard Model hasn’t answered every question that physics hands to it. One of the major questions that remains is the hierarchy problem, which seeks an explanation for the diverse values that the Standard Model lets physicists work with.

For most interpretations, superstring theory requires a large number of extra space dimensions to be mathematically consistent: M-theory requires ten space dimensions. With the introduction of branes as multidimensional objects in string theory, it becomes possible to construct and imagine wildly creative geometries for space that correspond to different possible particles and forces.

Here is a brief exploration of the Standard Model of particle physics and how it relates to string theory. Any complete string theory will have to include the features of the Standard Model and also extend beyond it to include gravity as well. Today scientists know that these atoms are not, as the Greeks imagined, the smallest chunks of matter.

Physicists have calculated that throughout the universe, there’s approximately six times as much dark matter as normal visible matter — and string theory may explain where it comes from! Astronomers have discovered that the gravitational effects observed in our universe don’t match the amount of matter seen. To account for these differences, it appears that the universe contains a mysterious form of matter that we can’t observe, called dark matter.

Another key insight into string theory comes from the holographic principle, which relates a theory in space to a theory defined only on the boundary of that space. The holographic principle isn’t strictly an aspect of string theory (or M-theory), but applies more generally to theories about gravity in any sort of space.

String theory was originally developed in 1968 as a theory that attempted to explain the behavior of hadrons (such as protons and neutrons, the particles that make up an atomic nucleus) inside particle accelerators. Physicists later realized this theory could also be used to explain some aspects of gravity. For more than a decade, string theory was abandoned by most physicists, mainly because it required a large number of extra, unseen dimensions.