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String Theory and the Real World
This book attempts to explain why 'string theory' may provide the comprehensive underlying theory that describes and explains our world. It is an enthusiastic view of how compactified string/M-theories (plus data that may be reachable) seem to have the possibilities of leading to a comprehensive underlying theory of particle physics and cosmology, perhaps soon. We are living in a hugely exciting era for science, one during which it may be possible to achieve a real and true understanding of our physical world.
- GenresPhysics
70 pages, Paperback
Published March 27, 2017
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December 22, 2023
I am a mathematician with interests in some aspects of QFT and string theory, and my reason to read the book (the second edition from 2021) was to catch up with the current state of physics phenomonology. The book fulfilled its purpose and I would definitely recommend it!
The author writes from the point of view of compactified M-theory, which is the area of his own research, and presents it as the current best candidate for a final theory. I myself have never studied M-theory, so what I am going to write is solely based on what I picked up while reading this book.
M-theory is a supersymmetric theory in 11D which is compactified to 4D, producing a unified theory of quantum gravity and (a version of) a supersymmetric Standard model. The author presents many beautiful ideas and principles which can be formulated without equations or any mathematical formalism. He does it in a way which was in harmony with my own point of view, so that I often felt happy that someone wrote it like that. The topics which I remembered are: the Standard model, the Hierarchy problem, spontanous symmetry breaking and the Higgs mechanism, physics beyond the Standard model, Supersymmetry, and the effect of extra dimensions and their compactifications. The author also elaborates on a possible definition of a final theory, proposes a series of tests and discusses the current (and future) experiments like the LHC.
I very much appreciated the Glossary, which reflects author's deep understanding of his field, and Appendix A with the author's choice of papers on M-theory. Motivated by the book, I will definitely have a look at some of them!
Some negligible downsides and suggestions are as follows. In the middle of the book I got the feeling that the author often repeats himself; however, I might have just not followed that well or it was author's intention to reinforce memorization. Some of the passages required too much background knowledge to comprehend while reading fluently, but it depends on the reader again. I would appreciate if the author, in his style, elaborated more on the following topics: reasons to replace point particles by higher dimensional objects; why is a quantum theory of gravity and of strings possible only in higher dimensions; why and how the theory scales at different energies; relation of supersymmetry, spacetime symmetry and gauge symmetry; more technical explanation of the Hierarchy problem and the need for Higgs physics beyond the Standard model; more details on hidden sectors and 3-cycles in M-theory; G2 and Calabi-Yau manifolds and their origins in M- and String theories, respectively; more on computational challenges.
The author writes from the point of view of compactified M-theory, which is the area of his own research, and presents it as the current best candidate for a final theory. I myself have never studied M-theory, so what I am going to write is solely based on what I picked up while reading this book.
M-theory is a supersymmetric theory in 11D which is compactified to 4D, producing a unified theory of quantum gravity and (a version of) a supersymmetric Standard model. The author presents many beautiful ideas and principles which can be formulated without equations or any mathematical formalism. He does it in a way which was in harmony with my own point of view, so that I often felt happy that someone wrote it like that. The topics which I remembered are: the Standard model, the Hierarchy problem, spontanous symmetry breaking and the Higgs mechanism, physics beyond the Standard model, Supersymmetry, and the effect of extra dimensions and their compactifications. The author also elaborates on a possible definition of a final theory, proposes a series of tests and discusses the current (and future) experiments like the LHC.
I very much appreciated the Glossary, which reflects author's deep understanding of his field, and Appendix A with the author's choice of papers on M-theory. Motivated by the book, I will definitely have a look at some of them!
Some negligible downsides and suggestions are as follows. In the middle of the book I got the feeling that the author often repeats himself; however, I might have just not followed that well or it was author's intention to reinforce memorization. Some of the passages required too much background knowledge to comprehend while reading fluently, but it depends on the reader again. I would appreciate if the author, in his style, elaborated more on the following topics: reasons to replace point particles by higher dimensional objects; why is a quantum theory of gravity and of strings possible only in higher dimensions; why and how the theory scales at different energies; relation of supersymmetry, spacetime symmetry and gauge symmetry; more technical explanation of the Hierarchy problem and the need for Higgs physics beyond the Standard model; more details on hidden sectors and 3-cycles in M-theory; G2 and Calabi-Yau manifolds and their origins in M- and String theories, respectively; more on computational challenges.
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