String theorists state that electrons, photons, protons, and all other particles are not zero-dimensional point-like objects (which form the basis of the Standard Model) but rather tiny one-dimensional extended objects that behave like strings. A group of strings vibrate at a specific resonant frequency—similar to the movement of strings to produce different sounds on musical instruments such as the violin and guitar—depending on what type of particle they are, such as electron, photon, proton, and so forth.

Over the years, string theorists have not generated any experimental data based on fundamental physical law that proves or disproves their theory—only mathematical equations that have produced about 5 x 10**100 (five times googol [1 followed by 100 zeros]) solutions. String theorists say that this googolish high number of universes exists and that humans just happen to live in one of them. However, others counter this statement as being unsupportable. They state that String theory has not yet explained how the universe exists and works.

Recently, several alternate models have been suggested. One, in particular, is called Loop Quantum Gravity (LQG). It uses loops, objects that are even more fundamental than strings. Space-time, itself, could be constructed of these fundamental particles, which are predicted to behave very closely to particles of matter. LQG predicts ten or eleven dimensions of the universe rather than the multitude of dimensions with one-dimensional particles of String theory and the four dimensions (three in space and one in time) with zero-dimensional particles of the Standard Model.

So far, most cosmologists do not support Loop Quantum Gravity theory. However, future experiments that are soon to be carried out could resolve if particles exist as points, strings, or loops. If particles are found to exist in one of these forms, then actual physics could be applied to a viable theory of the universe.

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), built near Geneva, Switzerland, by CERN (The European Centre for Nuclear Research) is a particle accelerator that could produce such experimental evidence. It is scheduled to begin operations in November 2007. When it becomes fully operational in 2008 it will be the world’s largest and highest energy particle accelerator. The 17-mile (27-kilometer) ring-shaped tunnel will collide two beams of protons head-on at speeds so great that conditions will be created similar to the first moments after the Big Bang, the theory on which the creation of the universe is based.

Each proton beam will have an energy of 7 TeV (TeV is short for teraelectronvolt, where one teraelectronvolt is equal to one trillion electronvolt [or 1,000,000,000,000 eV]). Thus, when the two beams hit head on, the total collision energy will be 14 TeV—the largest energy ever generated by a particle accelerator.

So, does every particle in the universe consist of points, strings, or loops--or maybe even something else? We don’t know yet, but maybe the Large Hadron Collider will give us some information to solve this mystery of the universe!

Additional information about the Large Hadron Collider can be found at: http://lhc.web.cern.ch/lhc/.

An interesting BBC article about LHC and the prospects of finding the Big Theory can be found at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4524132.stm.

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Astronomy  Physics  Science  Space  Universe  William Atkins