Some of the following definitions are summaries of explications at the following websites:
http://www.cs.brown.edu/people/seh/complex.html
http://freespace.virgin.net/steve.preston/super-strings.html
http://www.cs.brown.edu/people/seh/wormhole.html
Resonances are very short-lived phenomena that occur during a scattering experiment, which observes free particles as they speed in toward each other and the resulting particles that speed out again. The Regge trajectories confirmed that resonances have angular momentum. This led to the conclusion that elementary particles are extended objects or particles that are smeared out over a finite region of space. In the 1960's an Italian physicist, Gabriele Venezanio,observed string like properties of particles when he was attempting to compose a new way of accounting for the behavior of subatomic particles. In his work he related resonance, collisions, scattering, and Regge trajectories within a single model. His research produced equations that were very similar to the equations of a vibrating string. Venezanio concluded that the elementary particles were behaving like elastic strings binding their nucleus' together. This new model of particles presented a problem, however, for it allowed for the existence of ghosts. Ghosts are states of negative norm, like that of negative probability, and can only be avoided by adding as many as twenty two dimensions, to have a total of twenty six. Higher dimensions became a new and necessary complication in this new branch of quantum field theory. The standard model for quantum field theory failed to include these gravity carrying particles. String theory was a new direction in quantum field theory. String theory was still in its formative stages, however, and presented problems of infinities, anamolies, and inconsistent symmetry. It was not until 1980 that Michael Green and John Schwarz would solve these flaws by reformulating the original string theory to include supersymmetry and grand unification. Thus came about superstring theory, and a huge step forward for string theorists, in creating the "Grand Unified Theory".
In conventional quantum field theory, the space time trajectory of a
particle is a one-dimensional line called the world line. In superstring
theory the space time trajectory of a string is a two-dimensional surface
called the world sheet. The string world sheet is a smooth
manifold with no preferred points. In the case of the closed string, the
world sheet is topologically a cylinder. When strings interact,
the topology of the resulting world sheet describes their interaction.
Strings can interact by splitting and joining: an open string can break
in two, two strings can join to form a new string, and an open string can
join its ends to form a closed loop.
The interaction of closed strings results in world sheets that
are topologically equivalent to tori of any number of handles. The
interactions of strings is an inevitable consequence of the topological
nature of the strings themselves. String interactions are also, however,
largely affected by the topology of the universe.
MAGNETIC FIELDS
A simple definition of a magnetic field describes it as a sort of field of force around the Sun and the planets that is generated by electrical currents.
The solar wind created by the Sun's magnetic field fans outward through
the Solar System. As it passes the Earth our magnetic field is blown back,
forming a long MAGNETOTAIL on the night side of the Earth.
The interesting property of this tail is that its motions have recently
been discovered to be chaotic. The magnetotail is comprised of vectors.
On the side of the Earth which is receiving the wind elliptic sectors form.
They also occur behind the planet, on the night side. The chaotic aspects
of the MAGNETOTAIL happening here cause it to act strangely, even snapping
back toward the Earth and creating electrical disturbances. Hyperbolic
sectors arise on the wind receiving side of the planet as well as in front
of the elliptic sectors. A third kind of sector, the parabolic sector,
flows out around the night side of the planet, trapping the elliptic sectors.
Everyone is exposed at all times to the natural magnetic and electric
fields of the earth. Huge currents flowing in the EARTH's molten iron CORE
produce the MAGNETIC field that causes compass needles to
point towards the north. The electrical activity of the atmosphere gives
rise to the huge electric fields that produce LIGHTNING. LIGHTNING
STRIKES give rise to large INSTANTANEOUS MAGNETIC fields. Many birds
navigate using magnetic fields, and some BACTERIA too.
SUPERSTRING THEORIES involve the idea of higher dimensional spaces:
10 dimensions for fermions and 26 dimensions for bosons. It has been suggested
that there are the normal 4 ,
with the extra dimensions being tightly 'curled' up.
Wormholes are black holes, which, instead of a singularity have
a neck which connects it to a white hole. As the black hole takes in information,
the white hole spews it out. The topology of a wormhole
is that of a cylinder. The interesting thing about the addition
of a wormhole is that it adds a handle and changes the Euler characteristic
of the universe, decreasing it by 2. In this way, wormholes certainly alter
the topology of the universe. Wormholes seem to be highly unstable
on large scales. However, new theories propose the idea that the topology
of the universe is not fixed, but dynamic due to fluctuations caused by
tiny wormholes throughout space. Superstring theory is a unique quantum
theory that gives a unified description of all elementary particles in
the universe and the forces between them. It is an innovative approach
to quantum field theory that describes gravity together with the strong,
weak, and electromagnetic forces in nature.
Strings wrap around the holes or handles in the universe and get trapped
and cannot join other strings.
Recent observations of the universe have led to the bubble theory of space. This states that nearly all matter, in the form of galaxies, lies on the boundary of spheres.
The Meobius strip is formed by identifying
opposite sides of a rectangle with a single twist. The result is a surface
with only one edge and one side.
The curious Moebius band has been exploited as a symbol for humanity
as "a spiral of the reversibility of all signs in the shadows of spiritual
seduction and death."
Faster than light travel (FTL) is contrary to Stephen Hawking's easily
discredited Chronological Protection Conjecture (CPC). Time travel
now seems easily possible since we have discovered the elusive wormholes.
If space is not metric, then point-doubling and line splitting occurs.
This means demonstrable violations of causality, since more than one object
could exist in the same place at the same time. The CPC proposed by Hawking
does not permit this sort of topology. If one believes in causality,
one must reject wide-range topology changes. So Hawking's rejection of
time travel is a rejection of advanced topology. A new theory has
been proposed that exploits the rejection of causality. The Many Worlds
Theory states that there are many futures available, and that all possible
futures occur. This takes advantage of the non-Hausdorff allowance of line-splitting
in that a single worldline, not just one future, but many are running
at the same time. These many futures then would conceivably all converge
at the final singularity, if the universe were closed, for at that
time, it is the only possible future.
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