The Trouble With Physics: The Rise of String Theory, The Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next
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octonions, 274
“On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies” (Einstein), 36
Oppenheim, Paul, 296
Paczuski, Maya, 342–43
particles
accelerator discoveries on, 54
as composites, 73
kinds of, 12
mass differences/hierarchy of, 70
in string theory, 102
as waves, 67, 132
See also specific types; unification of particles and forces
Pauli, Wolfgang
exclusion principle, 67–68
quantum gravity, 84–85, 86
unified theory, 49
peer review
affirmative action, 336–37
African American candidates, 335–37
bias, 334–36
big research programs and, 337–39
candidates who think differently, 335–36, 337–48
comparative rankings, 334–35
description, 332, 333
normal science and, 339–40
polarized responses with, 342, 353
power and, 333–34, 336–39, 342
status/grants and, 337–38
string theorists and, 338–39
women candidates, 335–37
Penrose, Roger
landscape of string theories, 364 n5 (ch. 12)
on quantum theory and gravity, 319
Sciama and, 322–23
as seer/rebel, 294, 313, 319
twistor theory/space, 244, 245
perturbation theory, 179–80, 186–87, 188, 278–79
phenomenon of length contraction, 227
Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Newton), 3
phlogiston, 19
Phong, Duong H., 187, 280
phonon, 132
photinos, 74, 75
photons
description, 106, 183
Einstein, quantum revolution, and, 52
electromagnetic waves and, 55
gamma rays and, 224
gauge bosons and, 58, 106
as massless particles, 106
in quantum field theory, 55
vibrations of strings and, 183
Physical Review Letters, 104
physics as
“almost complete,” 3
beyond string theory (overview), 238, 254–56
breakthrough trends (before late 1970s), 66
communication problems, 239
division of, 5
dominant fields and, 268
failures (since late 1970s), viii, xi–xiii, 3–4, 66, 261–62
fundamental principles and, 218–19
historical overview of, viii–xi, xiii–xiv
key problems in, 3–17, 349–50
“missing element” and, 101–2
need for seers, 311, 312–14
normal science period (craftspeople), 311–12, 324
responses to failure, 66–67
revolutionary periods of, 3, 311, 324
risky new research programs, 294
style of research in, xxii–xxiii, 262–64
theory characteristics, 256
types of people studying, 95
wrong assumptions and, 256–58, 316
See also academic landscape; science; sociology of physics, string theory
Pioneer 10/11, 213–14
pions, 220, 221
Planck, Max, 3, 4, 51–52
Planck energy, 173, 221
Planck length/paradox, 227, 228–29
Planck mass, 70, 71
Planck scale
cosmic ray studies and, 220
description, 204, 224, 225
probing of, 224–26
special relativity breakdown and, 224–25, 231
Planck’s formula, ix, 3, 4
Planck time, 168
planets, 27–30
Plato, 218
Platonic solids
description/types of, 28
Kepler’s use of, 27–29, 28
Polchinski, Joseph
on alternatives to string theory, xv–xvi
anthropic principle, 169
inducing strings to become bigger, 171
Maldacena conjecture, 282
string theory, branes, 136–38, 155, 158
politics and power over social world, 297
Polyakov, Alexander, 110, 141–42, 249
Popov, Victor Nicolaevich, 88
Popper, Karl, 293, 296, 297
predictions
anthropic principle, 163, 168–69
on DSR theory, 252
general relativity, 45
on Higgs boson/particle, 70, 76, 77
Kaluza-Klein theory, 48
Kepler’s work, 30
special relativity, 219
string theory, problems with, xiv, 69–70, 124, 128, 174–76, 180, 183, 193, 197, 199, 223, 352
supersymmetry, problems with, 69–70, 174–76
theory and, xvi with unification proposals, 20, 40–41
of vacuum (ground-state) energy, 152, 158
Weinberg-Salam model of electroweak force, 62
preons, 73–74, 253–54
Preskill, John, xi–xii
“protected” masses, 72
proton decay
probing the Planck scale and, 225
standard model and, 63–65
protons
cosmic rays and, 219, 220–21
mass description, 70
quarks and, 56, 63–64
radioactive decay and, 63–65, 103
Ptolemy
epicycles, xvii, 21, 24, 196, 218
unification proposals, 20–21, 23, 24
Pynchon, Thomas, 233
QCD (quantum chromodynamics), 62, 110
QED (quantum electrodynamics)
as finite, 278
quantum field theory and, 55–56
quantum gravity and, 84, 86–87
quantum chromodynamics, 62, 110
quantum computers, 317–18, 325
quantum electrodynamics. See QED
quantum field theory
approximation procedures and, 182–83
description, 55, 182–83
difficulties in determining, 55
QED, 55–56
renormalization, 292
special relativity and, 55
strong/weak nuclear forces and, 55–56
unification of electromagnetism, quantum theory, 55
quantum geometry, 248, 249, 250
quantum gravity approaches (after string theory)
atmosphere of, 239–40, 262–64
background-independence requirement, 239, 247, 249, 251–52, 253, 255, 317
basic ideas of, 241
causal dynamical triangulation, 242–43, 242
causality and, 240–41
causal set theory, 243–44
condensed-matter models, 247
Connes’s noncommutative geometry, 245–47
loop quantum gravity and, 249–54
overview, 254–56
reformulation of general relativity equations, 239
space as emergent in, 240, 241
string theorists’ ignoring of, 239
twistor theory/space, 244–45
quantum gravity theory
answers needed from, 145–46
approaches to (summary), 83, 98
background dependence, 85, 86–87, 88–89, 98
background independence, 83, 85, 86
black hole information paradox, 91
cosmological constant problem, 153
difficulties of, 83–84
Einstein’s statement of problem, 83
failure of work in, 87, 88–89
gravity effects on quantum phenomena studies, 89–91
key question of, 83
loop quantum gravity, 229
pioneers of, 80, 85–86
Planck length, 227
Planck scale, 220
probabilities and, 88
problem of, 5–8, 12, 13
string theory problems with, 83, 184–92, 197–98
supergravity and, 91–98
Yang-Mills theories and, 88–89
quantum language, 7
quantum mechanics
domain of, 6
field theories and, 55, 84
new theory for, 9–11
observed system/observers division and, 7–8
problem-solving need, 8–11
realism and, 7, 8–10
quantum spacetime, 248, 249
quantum theory
as (possibly) wrong, 316–26
conceptual paradoxes of, 6
debates over, 7, 323–24
description, ix, 67
development of, 4
Einstein’s view of, 52
infinities problem with, 5–6
invention of string theory, 104–5, 107–8
reality/formalism and, 6–8
unified field theory, 51–52
quarks
“colors”/versions, 62
discovery of, 56
force between, 104
overview, x, 12
particles made from, 63–64, 103
unification of forces and, 56
Ramond, Pierre, 105, 111
Randall, Lisa, xvi, 173–74
random dynamics, 316
realism
quantum mechanics and, 7, 8–10
quantum theory and, 6–8
“real world out there” (RWOT), 7, 9
Rechel-Cohn, Amelia, 290
Rees, Martin, 322–23
relativity community, 262–63, 341
religion, 297, 303
rest
definition/description, 21–22
unification of motion and, 21, 22, 24, 39, 203, 219
Riemann hypothesis, 282
risk and science, xvi, xxi, 294, 330–31, 342–44, 353
Rocek, Martin, 93, 95
Roots of Civilization, The (Marshack), 297
Rovelli, Carlo
career of, 340–41
relational quantum theories, 317
as seer, 313
string theorists’ criticism of, 281
Royal Society, United Kingdom, 353
S-duality (strong-weak duality)
definition/description, 131, 144
eleven-dimensional theory and, 136
unification of string theory and, 133, 188–89
Salam, Abdus
anthropic principle, 165
Weinberg-Salam model of electroweak force, 61
Yang-Mills theories and, 88
See also Weinberg-Salam model of electroweak force
Scherk, Joël, 106
Schrödinger, Erwin
debate over quantum theory, 7
hidden-variables theory, 323
as seer, 311
unified theory, 49, 52–53
Schwarz, John, string theory and, 106, 111, 112, 113, 114–15, 339
Schwinger, Julian, 55, 87
Sciama, Dennis, 322–23
science
consensus and, 300, 302, 304–5, 306–7
as correction mechanism, 300–301
diversity of views in, 294–95, 304–5
democracy and, 295, 300–301
as ethical community, 302–3, 307
ethics violations, 305
evolution of, 297–98
fashion/fads and, 306
funding reforms, 352–53, 354
as imaginative community, 303–4, 306–7
need for definition, 295
need for innovation, 308–9
need for revolutions, 311, 312–14
normal, and craftspeople, 310, 311–12, 314, 324
normal, and peer review, 339–40
normal vs. revolutionary, x, xxii–xxiii, 294–95, 296–97, 300, 310, 311, 324, 348, 351
and other belief systems, 297
power over physical world and, 297, 298
repeatable experiments and, 298–99, 365 n1 (ch. 13)
responsibility of public, 353–54
responsibility of scientists, xxi–xxii, 354–55
revolutionary periods in physics, 3, 311, 324
revolutions, description of, 115, 116
role in human culture, 297–301
seers, 310, 311, 312–14
shared ethic of, 301–3, 350–51
social constructivists–scientists debate, xix–xx
solving problems in, 294, 349–55
time and, 305–6
wrong assumptions, 308–9
See also academic landscape; craftspeople; physics; seers
Science in a Free Society (Feyerabend), 291
scientific methods, 295–98
Scuola Internationale Superiore di Studi Avanzati (SISSA), 323
second law of thermodynamics, 90
seers
background-independent approaches and, 313
characteristics of, vii–viii, 309, 314, 321–22, 326–27, 328–30, 343, 351
examples of, 309, 313, 314–29, 342–43
historical/philosophical context of science and, 310–11
need for, 311, 312–14
recognizing, 329, 353
revolutionary periods in science and, 310, 311, 312
scientific/academic careers and, 265–67, 314, 315–16, 318–19, 320–25, 326–31, 344–48, 350, 351–53, 370 n14
Seiberg, Nathan, 270
selectrons, 68–69, 74, 75
Shenker, Stephen, 147, 274
Shor, Peter, 325
Singer, Isador, 346
SISSA (Scuola Internationale Superiore di Studi Avanzati), 323
sleptons, 75
Smolin, Lee
career vs. thinking for oneself, 339–40
cosmological natural selection, 167
“Did the Universe Evolve?” 127
DSR/DSR II, 231–37
evolution and, 25–26
Feyerabend and, 290–93
graduate school crisis, 289–94
Life of the Cosmos, The, 127, 167
loop quantum gravity and relativity, 229, 271, 314–15
“On the Relations Between Quantum and Thermal Fluctuations,” 320, 355
as seer/craftsperson, 311, 312, 319–20
string finiteness and, 279–82, 285
string theory work, xviii–xix, xx–xxi, 271, 274, 279, 285
threats to academic freedom (article), 345
Valentini and, 326
views on quantum theory, 319–20, 326
VSL cosmology/relativity, 230–33
Wheeler-DeWitt equation, 314–15
sneutrinos, 75
social constructivists–scientists debate, xix–xx
sociology of physics, string theory
belief in unproved conjectures, 278–83, 284
confidence/arrogance and, 268–70, 284, 367 n4 (ch. 16)
disregard for alternate approaches, xv–xvi, 270–71, 284, 351
exaggeration of claims, 276–77, 283–84
fads in, 271–72
finiteness as believed/unproved, 278–82
groupthink, 286–88, 350, 354
ignoring/reviving work, 273–74
inefficient use of talents, 272
lack of assessment, 281
lack of knowledge of key string results, 277–82
lack of originality and innovation, xxiii, 273–74, 284