At and soon after the Big Bang the temperatures and energies were so high that there was only one fundamental interaction, and not four. As our universe cooled a little, symmetry-breaking transitions occurred and different interactions appeared one by one. New fields and matter arose as a result of these transitions. Since there was only radiation, and no matter, to start with, the present distinction between matter particles (fermions) and field particles (bosons) is also a result of broken symmetry. We call it SUPERSYMMETRY (SUSY). If supersymmetry could be restored by going to high enough temperatures or energies, the distinction between fermions and bosons would vanish.
As we go up the symmetry ladder, more and more
'dimensions' come into existence. Supersymmetry involves symmetry operations in
a certain n-dimensional superspace, four of these dimensions being the
spacetime coordinates we perceive in our world.
The most important new symmetry emerging from the
supersymmetry description of Nature is that for every particle with spin J (a boson), there must be another
particle with spin J±1/2 (a fermion). We would see a 'degeneracy' (sameness)
if this supersymmetry could be realized by going to high-enough temperatures,
and the masses of the two partner particles would become equal. But since the
supersymmetry has got broken at the prevailing temperatures, the masses are
different.
The standard model does not include quantization of
the gravitational interaction, and its unification with the other three
interactions. This means that additional broken symmetries need to be
postulated and verified, with an attendant increase in the number of dimensions
of the hyperspace in which the symmetry transformations operate. STRING
THEORIES attempts to do that. They involve an extension of the conceptual
framework of quantum field theory.
The
uncertainty principle (cf. Part 3) is one reason why it is so hard to formulate a
quantum theory of gravity (Einstein’s general theory of relativity is a wholly
classical theory). The uncertainty principle applies to pairs of ‘conjugate
parameters’. For example, the position of a particle along the x-axis and its momentum component along
the same direction are one such pair of conjugate parameters. A second such
pair is the value of a field and its rate of change. The more accurately one is
determined, the more uncertain the value of the other becomes. This means that
there is NO SUCH THING AS EMPTY SPACE: An empty space would mean that both the
value of a field and its rate of change are exactly zero; and this is not
allowed by the uncertainty principle.
Thus
when we speak of vacuum in quantum physics, we really mean a space which has a
certain minimum-energy state. This state is subject to quantum fluctuations, which means that pairs of (virtual) particles
can make momentary appearances (within the limits prescribed by the uncertainty
principle), and then disappear by merging into each other. There are infinitely
many such virtual pairs possible, each having energy, implying that the vacuum
state should have infinite energy. But an infinite-energy vacuum state would
curve the universe to an infinitely small size, according to the general theory
of relativity. This is not what actually happens, so our theory is plagued by
an 'infinity problem' again.
In
1976 the idea of supersymmetry
was put forward in this context. In supersymmetry theory, force particles
(bosons) and matter particles (fermions) are symmetry-related, or rather supersymmetry-related.
This scenario has the potential to solve the above infinity problem: It turns
out that the infinities from matter-related virtual particles are all negative,
while they are all positive for force-related virtual particles, so they can
cancel each other out.
The
notion of supergravity, which emerges when we invoke
supersymmetry, has the potential to unify gravity with the other three
interactions.
The
idea of supersymmetry had actually originated earlier when string theories were being
formulated. In string theories the elementary particles are envisaged, not as
points, but rather as patterns of vibration that have length but no width
(‘strings’). The various string theories are consistent only if spacetime has
10 dimensions, rather than 4. We see only four dimensions because the
other six have 'curled up' into a space of very small size.
An
analogy will help understand this. Consider a straw you use for drinking
lemonade. Its surface is 2-dimensional: We need two numbers or coordinates for
specifying the location of any point on it. But if the straw is extremely thin
(say a million-million-million-million-millionth of an inch), it is practically
1-dimensional; the other dimension has just curled up into near-nothingness in
terms of visibility.
Introduction
of supersymmetry into a string theory leads to the idea of SUPERSTRINGS.
Earlier, there appeared to be at least five different string theories (or
rather superstring theories), and millions of ways in which the extra dimensions
could be curled up. But many experts are now convinced that the five superstring
theories, as also supergravity, are merely different approximations to a more
fundamental theory called the M-THEORY, each superstring theory being valid in
different (but overlapping) situations.
M-theory
involves 11 dimensions instead of 10. It is this extra dimension which unifies
the five string theories. Moreover, M-theory allows for not just strings (which
are 1-dimensional objects), but also point particles, 2-dimensional membranes,
etc., all the way up to 9-dimensional entities (called 'p-branes', with p running from 0 to 9). M-theory is the
unique supersymmetric theory in 11 dimensions.
A
crucial feature of M-theory is that its mathematics restricts the ways in which
the dimensions of the internal space can be curled-up. Thus the theory comes up
with unique (rather than arbitrary)
values for the fundamental constants and the ‘apparent’ laws of physics
corresponding to any particular mode of curling.
M-theory
needs to be verified adequately. It is a beautiful theory. If confirmed, it may
well be the long-coveted 'theory of everything' (TOE).
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