A theory that can change the world we see !

A new theory that tries to answer the question of what is this world made of!, STRING THEORY. In the year 1968 a young researcher Gabriele Veneziano trying to discover a strong force used strings to model particles.

Ordinary matter in this world is made of atoms, which is again made of its basic components (electrons, whirling around the nucleus composed of electrons and protons .)

Electrons are themselves the fundamental particle, (which falls in the category of leptons.) But from researches, it is found that neutrons and protons are further formed by smaller particles called “quarks”. Our current knowledge abt subatomic composition of the universe is summarized in what is known as the Standard Model of particle physics.it discusses the fundamental building blocks with which the world is made of, and the forces through which these blocks interact. There are 12 of these building blocks, out of which 6 are quarks the are:

• ·       Up,
• ·       strange ,
• ·       charm,
• ·       Down,
• ·        bottom,
• ·        Top. (a proton is made of 2 up and 1 down quarks)

The other 6 are leptons, these include ex;

Electrons, neutrino, muon neutrino, tau neutrino

There are four fundamental forces in this universe:

Gravitational force, electromagnetism, strong nuclear force and weak nuclear force. Each of this is produced by fundamental particles which act as a carrier of force. Most familiar to this is photons which are particles of light, which is a mediator of the electromagnetic force.

(this means, for instance, a magnet attracts a nail because of both the objects exchange photons )

Similar to this the gravitational forces, the particle associated with it is gravitons. The strong forces are carried by eight particles known as gluons. Finally, the weak forces are transmitted by three particles the W+, W-, and the Z. In the last few decades, the String theory has emerged as the most promising candidate for microscopic theory of gravity. And it is infinitely more ambitious than that, it attempts to provide a complete, unified and consistent description of the fundamental structure of our universe. (The reason sometimes it is arrogantly quoted as the  “The Theory of Everything”).

If the string theory is correct:

Then under a great powerful microscope, we would realize the electrons are not only points, but it is made of tiny loops of strings of energy. A string can oscillate or vibrate other than moving. Due to different oscillation or vibration in a different direction which forms electrons, photons, quarks etc. So if the string theory is proved then the whole universe is made of tiny oscillating strings!

- Rwitoban Dey,
AEIE 1st year,
Heritage Institute of Technology,
Kolkata.

IMG Source: forbes.com