String Theory For Dummies. Andrew Zimmerman Jones

Positive and negative charges are connected by invisible lines of f...FIGURE 5-7: The north and south poles of a bar magnet are connected by invisibl...FIGURE 5-8: The electric field and magnetic field are in step in an electromagn...

      5 Chapter 6FIGURE 6-1: The Michelson-Morley interferometer sends light beams along two dif...FIGURE 6-2: (Top) You see a beam of light go up, bounce off the mirror, and com...FIGURE 6-3: The path a particle takes through space and time creates its worldl...FIGURE 6-4: (Left) Scientists performing experiments in an accelerating spacesh...FIGURE 6-5: Both acceleration and gravity bend a beam of light.FIGURE 6-6: Without matter, space-time is flat (left), but it curves when matte...FIGURE 6-7: Light from distant stars follows the shortest path along curved spa...

      6 Chapter 7FIGURE 7-1: The ultraviolet catastrophe occurred when theory and experiment did...FIGURE 7-2: The photoelectric effect occurs when light collides with a metal pl...FIGURE 7-3: In the double slit experiment, light creates bright and dark bands ...FIGURE 7-4: Electrons demonstrate interference in the double slit experiment.FIGURE 7-5: Interference patterns occur when waves pass through both slits.

      7 Chapter 8FIGURE 8-1: Cathode ray tubes allow charged particles to be studied in a vacuum...FIGURE 8-2: The Rutherford-Bohr model of the atom has electrons moving in orbit...FIGURE 8-3: A Feynman diagram demonstrates how particles interact with each oth...FIGURE 8-4: (Left) A particle and antiparticle annihilate each other, releasing...FIGURE 8-5: The hierarchy problem in physics relates to the large gap between t...

      8 Chapter 9FIGURE 9-1: Three types of universes: closed, open, and flat.FIGURE 9-2: ESA’s Planck satellite image shows an almost perfectly uniform cosm...FIGURE 9-3: A repulsive effect pushes galaxies apart, while the familiar gravit...FIGURE 9-4: The Planck data allows you to compare today’s universe with the dis...FIGURE 9-5: The EHT obtained the first visual image of a black hole in 2019. Th...FIGURE 9-6: Inside a black hole, space-time stretches to an infinite singularit...

      9 Chapter 10FIGURE 10-1: Most people think of particles as balls or points. In ...FIGURE 10-2: String theory allows for open and closed strings. Open strings are...FIGURE 10-3: According to string theory, the universe has extra dimensions that...

      10 Chapter 11FIGURE 11-1: Open strings attach to the brane at each end. The ends can attach ...

      11 Chapter 12FIGURE 12-1: (Left) The interaction of an electron and a positron releases a ph...FIGURE 12-2: (Left) A loop of virtual particles in quantum electrodynamics. (Ri...FIGURE 12-3: Two apparently different string loops that can deform into each ot...FIGURE 12-4: In the string theory landscape, only some possibilities allow life...

      12 Chapter 13FIGURE 13-1: Cutting an optical hologram in half is very different than cutting...FIGURE 13-2: The holographic principle says information about a space is contai...FIGURE 13-3: Left: Zooming into a sphere, we see a cap, with positive curvature...FIGURE 13-4: The Poincaré disk is a representation of hyperbolic space. For som...FIGURE 13-5: The woodcut Circle limit IV by M. C. Escher depicts a tiling of th...

      13 Chapter 14FIGURE 14-1: When some stars die, they release massive bursts of energy. FIGURE 14-2: Gravity from a cosmic superstring could bend the light from a star...FIGURE 14-3: The Large Hadron Collider is built in a circular tunnel with a 17-...FIGURE 14-4: Two possible descriptions of the tetraquark. Left: Four quarks sit...

      14 Chapter 15FIGURE 15-1: In Euclidean geometry, all figures are flat, as if drawn on a shee...FIGURE 15-2: In Cartesian geometry, lines are drawn and analyzed on a grid of c...FIGURE 15-3: It takes three numbers to define a vector (or location) in three d...FIGURE 15-4: A Mobius strip is twisted so it has only one continuous surface.FIGURE 15-5: A Klein bottle has no boundary (edge).FIGURE 15-6: Sometimes the angles of a triangle don’t measure up to 180 degrees...

      15 Chapter 16FIGURE 16-1: In this thought experiment, the floor and ceiling want to move awa...

      16 Chapter 17FIGURE 17-1: Instead of a worldline (left), a string creates a worldsheet (righ...FIGURE 17-2: Traveling into a wormhole could get you from one location in space...

      17 Chapter 19FIGURE 19-1: The spin network evolves over time through local changes.FIGURE 19-2: Braids in the fabric of space may account for the known particles ...

      Guide

      1  Cover

      2  Title Page

      3  Copyright

      4 Table of Contents

      5  Begin Reading

      6  Index

      7  About the Authors

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