string theory – Quanta Magazine https://www.quantamagazine.org Illuminating science Mon, 16 Sep 2024 14:10:47 -0400 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.2 AI Starts to Sift Through String Theory’s Near-Endless Possibilities https://www.quantamagazine.org/ai-starts-to-sift-through-string-theorys-near-endless-possibilities-20240423/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/ai-starts-to-sift-through-string-theorys-near-endless-possibilities-20240423/#respond Tue, 23 Apr 2024 14:00:56 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=137445 The post AI Starts to Sift Through String Theory’s Near-Endless Possibilities first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> String theory captured the hearts and minds of many physicists decades ago because of a beautiful simplicity. Zoom in far enough on a patch of space, the theory says, and you won’t see a menagerie of particles or jittery quantum fields. There will only be identical strands of energy, vibrating and merging and separating. By the late 1980s, physicists found that these “strings” can cavort in just a...

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/ai-starts-to-sift-through-string-theorys-near-endless-possibilities-20240423/feed/ 0 In a ‘Dark Dimension,’ Physicists Search for the Universe’s Missing Matter https://www.quantamagazine.org/in-a-dark-dimension-physicists-search-for-missing-matter-20240201/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/in-a-dark-dimension-physicists-search-for-missing-matter-20240201/#respond Thu, 01 Feb 2024 15:40:30 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=134877 The post In a ‘Dark Dimension,’ Physicists Search for the Universe’s Missing Matter first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> When it comes to understanding the fabric of the universe, most of what scientists think exists is consigned to a dark, murky domain. Ordinary matter, the stuff we can see and touch, accounts for just 5% of the cosmos. The rest, cosmologists say, is dark energy and dark matter, mysterious substances that are labeled “dark” partly to reflect our ignorance about their true nature.

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/in-a-dark-dimension-physicists-search-for-missing-matter-20240201/feed/ 0 The Mathematician Who Sculpted the Shape of Space https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-mathematician-who-shaped-string-theory-20231016/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-mathematician-who-shaped-string-theory-20231016/#respond Mon, 16 Oct 2023 14:03:49 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=131307 The post The Mathematician Who Sculpted the Shape of Space first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> Eugenio Calabi was known to his colleagues as an inventive mathematician — “transformatively original,” as his former student Xiuxiong Chen put it. In 1953, Calabi began to contemplate a class of shapes that nobody had ever envisioned before. Other mathematicians thought their existence was impossible. But a couple of decades later, these same shapes became extremely important in both math and...

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-mathematician-who-shaped-string-theory-20231016/feed/ 0 Does Nothingness Exist? https://www.quantamagazine.org/does-nothingness-exist-20230726/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/does-nothingness-exist-20230726/#respond Wed, 26 Jul 2023 19:30:49 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=128315 The post Does Nothingness Exist? first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> Aristotle argued almost 2,400 years ago that a perfect vacuum could never exist. Today, the concept of nothingness figures at least implicitly into almost every theory of modern physics. In this episode closing out season 2 of “The Joy of Why,” the theoretical physicist Isabel Garcia Garcia of New York University and the Institute for Advanced Study talks with host Steven Strogatz about the impact...

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/does-nothingness-exist-20230726/feed/ 0 How the Physics of Nothing Underlies Everything https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-the-physics-of-nothing-underlies-everything-20220809/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-the-physics-of-nothing-underlies-everything-20220809/#respond Tue, 09 Aug 2022 13:32:15 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=117672 The post How the Physics of Nothing Underlies Everything first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> Millennia ago, Aristotle asserted that nature abhors a vacuum, reasoning that objects would fly through truly empty space at impossible speeds. In 1277, the French bishop Etienne Tempier shot back, declaring that God could do anything, even create a vacuum. Then a mere scientist pulled it off. Otto von Guericke invented a pump to suck the air from within a hollow copper sphere...

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