![]() ![]() "By 1973–'74 there were many good reasons to stop working on string theory," Schwarz wrote. Researchers disagree over whether, with modifications, it's still the best candidate for a "theory of everything" or whether theorists should abandon it in favor of other topics. String theory today doesn't exactly match string theory of the 1960s and '70s. It needed a total of 10 dimensions, with six visible only to the perspective of the little strings, much as a powerline looks like a 1D line to birds flying far overhead but becomes a 3D cylinder to an ant crawling on the wire. The next step, theorists hoped, would be to find the right way to describe the folding and movement of strings, and everything else should have followed.īut that initial simplicity turned out to come at the cost of unexpected complexity - string math didn't work in our familiar four dimensions (three of space and one of time). In addition to taming gravity, string theory was attractive for its potential to explain so-called fundamental constants like the mass of an electron. A string of a particular length striking a particular note might gain the properties of a photon, another string folded and vibrating with a different frequency could play the role of a quark, and so on. ![]() String theory turns the page on the standard description of the universe by replacing all matter and force particles with just one element: tiny vibrating strings that twist and turn in complicated ways that, from our perspective, look like particles. "A one-dimensional object - that's the thing that really tames the infinities that come up in the calculations," string theory expert Marika Taylor, a theoretical physicist at the University of Southampton in England, told. String theory math required six additional dimensions (for a total of 10) visible only to the little strings, much as a powerline looks like a 1D line to birds flying far overhead but a 3D cylinder to an ant crawling on the wire. Strings, and only strings, can collide and rebound cleanly without implying physically impossible infinities. One possible solution, which theorists borrowed from nuclear physicists in the 1970s, is to get rid of the idea of problematic, point-like graviton particles. Theorists can predict what a gravity particle should look like, but when they try to calculate what happens when two such "gravitons" smash together, they get an infinite amount of energy packed into a small space - a sure sign, according to astrophysicist Paul Sutter in a previous article for, that the math is missing something. Gravity seems not to exist as a particle of its own, either. Instead, its effects are only noticeable and important on the scale of moons, planets, stars and galaxies. But unlike the other forces (electromagnetism, the strong force and the weak force), gravity is so weak that it can't be detected or observed on the scale of a particle. It’s one of the four forces that physicists use to describe nature. A step change for Partikel, String Theory is an intriguing insight into the depths of their resources.In Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity, gravity is a force that warps space-time around massive objects. The only cover is Body and Soul, with Eagles coaxing out the melody in delicate smoke-rings on the tenor, and then as urgent improv on a taut groove. The Buffalo, a gracefully lyrical weave for Eagles, over a fine strings arrangement and drummer Eric Ford on tabla, is a standout – as is McLean’s tonally audicious solo violin intro to it. The suite Clash of the Clans certainly opens with a ghostly swirl of dissonant strings chatter, but a graceful melody and a sleek sax solo soon purr through it. Saxophonist Duncan Eagles has sought a fresh challenge, in balancing Partikel’s familiar free-jazzy energy with a compositional coherence that draws the textures of the string players and the trio into striking and often unexpectedly seductive accords. This is the third album from UK sax/bass/drums trio Partikel, now expanded to include a string quartet led on violin by the gifted Benet McLean, better known as a very sharp post-bop pianist. ![]()
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