Physicists ‘bootstrap’ validity of string theory

String theory holds that the most fundamental building blocks of nature are not particles but one-dimensional vibrating strings that move at different frequencies to determine the type of particles that emerge—similar to how the vibrations of a stringed instrument create a sequence of particles.

In their work, reported in the magazine Physical Review Letters, Researchers at New York University and the California Institute of Technology asked the question: “What mathematical problem is the only answer to string theory?” This method of understanding physics is called “bootstrapping,” which is reminiscent of “bootstrapping.” Program to improve yourself” motto – produces results without additional help or, in this case, input.

Bootstrap has previously allowed physicists to understand why general relativity and various particle theories, such as the interaction of gluons inside protons, are mathematically inevitable: Under certain criteria, they are the only consistent mathematical structures.

However, string theory has not previously answered the same question: What criteria uniquely determine it by mathematically picking it from the set of all possible theories?

exist Physical Review Letters In the paper, the scientists discovered a way to guide the amplitudes of these strings—specifically, by creating mathematical formulas to structure them. By applying special mathematical conditions to the scattering amplitude formula, which describes how particles interact and ultimately form, the team found that string theory’s amplitude emerged as the only consistent answer.

“This paper provides the first answer to this string theory question,” said Grant Remmen, a James Arthur Postdoctoral Fellow at NYU’s Center for Cosmology and Particle Physics and one of the paper’s authors. “Now that these mathematical conditions are known, it brings us closer to understanding whether and why string theory must describe our universe.”

The paper’s authors, who also include Caltech professor of theoretical physics Clifford Cheung and Caltech postdoctoral researcher Aaron Hillman, add that the breakthrough could help better understand quantum gravity – which attempts to reconcile Einstein’s theory of relativity , which explains large-scale gravity using quantum mechanics, which describes particle activity at the smallest scale.

“This approach opens up a new field of research in analyzing the unique characteristics of string amplitudes,” Lehman explains. “The development of tools outlined in our study can be used to study distortions of string theory, allowing us to map the possibility space of quantum gravity.”

This research was supported by a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DESC0011632).