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String theory may be inevitable as a unified theory of physics, calculations suggest (physicsworld.com)

submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Striking evidence that string theory could be the sole viable “theory of everything” has emerged in a new theoretical study of particle scattering that was done by a trio of physicists in the US. By unifying all fundamental forces of nature, including gravity, string theory could provide the long-sought quantum description of gravity that has eluded scientists for decades.

The research was done by Caltech’s Clifford Cheung and Aaron Hillman along with Grant Remmen at New York University. They have delved into the intricate mathematics of scattering amplitudes, which are quantities that encapsulate the probabilities of particles interacting when they collide.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

Cheung explains, “Our work asks: what is the precise math problem whose solution is the scattering amplitude of strings? And is it the unique solution?”. He adds, “This work can’t verify the validity of string theory, which like all questions about nature is a question for experiment to resolve. But it can help illuminate whether the hypothesis that the world is described by vibrating strings is actually logically equivalent to a smaller, perhaps more conservative set of bottom up assumptions that define this math problem.”

OK but the only thing string theory ever had going for it is that the math is exceptionally pretty, so is this actually adding anything new?