Talk:Superstring theory

Maveric - I know this much about the topic: String theory and Superstring theory are different enough to be written separately - I just read the "Elegant Universe" which discusses the differences in depth over several chapters. I am, unfortunately, far too ignorant to attempt to explain the difference adeqautely. - MMGB

I'll try to explain it soon.

---

String theory is about strings. But strings of what? As an answer to that question, I like to think 'strings of energy'. After all, we know that

1. energy is a fundamental concept in string theory (which makes it a possible answer)
2. dimension is a derived concept in string theory (which nixes it as a possible answer)
3. information is just wrong since strings are continuous while information is discrete

So there's only one possible answer as far as I can see. Plus,

1. energy is distributed on the string's world-sheet. Isn't it?

Can we have some expert explain in comprehensible terms why this is completely wrong?

From my understanding, it's not really a meaningful question. In the

Standard Model we don't ask what electrons are made of, because they're

supposed to be fundamental particles. Likewise, string theory says that

strings are fundamental. Being the fundamental building block means that

there isn't anything for it to be made of. But I could be wrong.

--Stuart Presnell 29/11/2002

---

Please clarify the following statement in the article:

Heterotic SO(32) is slightly inaccurate since among the SO(32) Lie groups,

string theory singles out Spin(32)/Z2.

Does this mean merely that the name is inaccurate? Yahya Abdal-Aziz 2003/04/23