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Not Even Wrong: The Failure of String Theory and the Continuing Challenge to Unify the Laws of Physics Paperback – 7 Jun. 2007
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Not Even Wrong is a fascinating exploration of our attempts to come to grips with perhaps the most intellectually demanding puzzle of all: how does the universe work at its most fundamnetal level?
The book begins with an historical survey of the experimental and theoretical developments that led to the creation of the phenomenally successful 'Standard Model' of particle physics around 1975. Despite its successes, the Standard Model does not answer all the key questions and physicists continuing search for answers led to the development of superstring theory. However, after twenty years, superstring theory has failed to advance beyond the Standard Model.
The absence of experimental evidence is at the core of this controversial situation which means that it is impossible to prove that superstring theory is either right or wrong. To date, only the arguments of the theory's advocates have received much publicity. Not Even Wrong provides readers with another side of the story.
- Print length304 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherVintage
- Publication date7 Jun. 2007
- Dimensions12.7 x 1.91 x 20.07 cm
- ISBN-100099488647
- ISBN-13978-0099488644
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Will embolden other string critics to speak up and encourage talented young physicists to pursue other lines of research -- John Horgan ― Prospect
Compulsive reading -- Roger Penrose
It's a call to arms ― New Scientist
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- Publisher : Vintage (7 Jun. 2007)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 304 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0099488647
- ISBN-13 : 978-0099488644
- Dimensions : 12.7 x 1.91 x 20.07 cm
- Best Sellers Rank: 445,389 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 162 in Research & Development
- 242 in Scientific Equipment & Techniques
- 566 in Engineering Physics
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I am a layman, so I can't say anything about SST, but I think there are some features of the theory that need to be considered in the light of Knowledge Theory.
In Arthur Jaffe's paper "Ordering the Universe: The Role of Mathematics", SIAM Review, Vol.76, No 4, October 1984, there is a diagram showing the interaction or feedback between Mathematics and Nature. That diagram may be generalised as:
THOUGHT--elaborate--> KNOWLEDGE--guides--> THOUGHT--directs--> ACTIVITY--conditions--> THOUGHT
This feedback between knowledge (or theory) and activity (or experiments) is emphasized several times in the book, but it seems that the superstring theorists ignore it; needing a spacetime of 10 dimensions to explain their theory, they are committing the same error (generally speaking) as Hipparcus, the Greek mathematician and astronomer who needed an epicycle to describe the trajectory of the planets. However, there is a difference in that the Hipparcus's method could give approximated results, while SST can't get experimental evidence. Superstring theorists seem to ignore also the fact that Kepler discovered the laws bearing his name using the data about planets compiled by the astronomer Tycho Brahe. As another example of a concept created by the mind of the physicists without any evidence and projected in the Nature as a real entity, I can cite the "ether", the medium through which the physicists thought that the electromagnetic waves propagate.
Another point I would like to focus is that some physicists are not humble persons, when they hail the SST as a "Theory of Everything". They forget that, at the end of 19th century, the physicists thought that physics was almost complete, remaining to solve only "little" problems as the ultra-violet catastrophe and the problem of the speed of light. We know the great revolution in physics that happened next to the works of Planck and of Einstein about that problems.
To conclude, I would like to refer an analogy between the development of particle physics and the evolution of mathematics. Since the birth of Quantum Mechanics until to the Standard Model the particle physics has undergone several "up-grading", each phase of the theory backing up on the previous one. This evolution is somewhat similar to the evolution of mathematics, where we see subjects of high level appearing founded on subjects of lower level.
The strong points here were a very good discussion of Experimental Particle Physics, a strong critique of String Theory, and interesting anecdotes about the attitudes of String Theorists towards their Physics colleagues who are investigating different approaches to solving problems like Quantum Gravity and trying to develop a Theory Of Everything.
The author is more vehement in his opposition to String Theory than Smolin, and when describing String Theory pulls no punches by invoking Dirac's withering put-down "not even wrong", which he also used for the title of his book.
On a final note I would heartily recommend buying the version with the beautiful bubble-chamber illustration on the cover!
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I like to say, first of all, that this is a difficult book to read for the layperson. This becomes clearly evident in chapter three, where Woit provides what he calls "an oversimplified description of representation theory and its connection to quantum mechanics." Even in his "oversimplified version," it was very difficult to follow. Perhaps this book would be suited better to someone with some exposure to this type of physics. That said, this book surveys the current state of fundamental particle physics from the point of view of a mathematically oriented particle physicist.
We are first introduced to the nature of the quantum world. It is here we learn (or try) about Hilbert space, wavefunctions, operators, eigenstates, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, symmetry groups and representations. Next, we learn of quantum field theory and the work of such greats as Jordan, Pauli, and Heisenberg. This segues into gauge symmetry and gauge theories. Several chapters are devoted to the Standard Model. Woit informs us that every experiment that anyone has been able to conceive and carry out has produced results in precise agreement with the model. However, there are some issues. After discussing a number of problems he sees with the model, he notes "what is unsatisfactory about the standard model is that it leaves seventeen nontrivial numbers still to be explained, and it would be nice to know why the eighteenth one is zero." By 1973, we see the completion of the ideas required for the standard model, and this brought to a close a period of dramatic progress; however, this was also the beginning, Woit notes, of "an exceedingly frustrating new era, one that has lasted more than thirty years to the present day."
In chapter ten, Woit explains some new insights in quantum field theory and mathematics. Well, if you're a lay person on the subject, like myself, just forget about understanding any of this. Read it through, and get a feel for the complexity of the work involved. There are instantons, lattice gauge theory, something called large N, two-dimensional field theories, and topological quantum field theory - whew! I don't know what I just said, but it all sounded exciting.
Finally, by chapter eleven, we get to string theory, where our attention is turned to the history of ideas that didn't pan out and their effect on physics to this day. He covers the first string theories and the first superstring theory revolution where we see a large uptick in the number of papers on superstrings in the mid 1980s. At this point, work on superstring theory dominated the field, and this situation continues in some form even today. Despite all the work, it appears that this superstring theory has zero connection with experiment, since it makes no - that's not any - predictions according to Woit. Again Woit ventures into somewhat technical aspects that some readers may find difficult; he finds this necessary to fully explain his position. The simplest supersymmetric theory that generalizes the standard model is something called the "minimal supersymmetric standard model," or MSSM. The problem is this theory introduces at least 105 extra undetermined parameters that are not found in the standard model. We already need help to understand the 18 experimentally known, but theoretically unexplained, numbers that we find in the standard model; now we have 105 more! Unfortunately, the conclusion seems to be that the "fundamental reason that superstring theory makes no predictions is that it isn't really a theory, but rather a set of reasons for hoping that a theory exists."
The author continues by exploring the attitude that string theory is considered "the only game in town." This becomes evident as Woit describes the "triumphalist attitude of some of its practitioners." This attitude is cemented in place by those who hold tenured professorships at the highest-ranked universities as they hold all the influence and power. Sadly, he laments, that it "is an unfortunate fact that the new advances in particle theory are unlikely to come from anyone who is not either being paid to think about the subject or independently wealthy." If you want a tenured job, you're in string theory - period.
Woit now provides some background on the landscape of string theory. It seems that there are a huge number of possible vacuum states (explained in the book) consistent with the theory. Many have come to the conclusion that superstring theory really does have all these vacuum states and thus cannot predict the cosmological constant or other undetermined parameters of the standard model. So Woit ponders why, if one can no longer see a way forward to make predictions, don't people abandon work on it and pursue something more promising? He concludes by saying the power to change direction in research is in the hands of a small group of faculty committees and a couple of government offices, but dramatic changes could be forthcoming should they choose to use their power to effect such change. So, where is it all going? To be continued...
Peter Voit está obviamente muy molesto por el triunfo académico de la teoría de cuerdas. Los defensores de esta disciplina copan los puestos y subvenciones de las universidades más importantes, sin conseguir ningún resultado más allá de las teorías que sólo entre ellos se reafirman. Sin duda paradigma del sistema académico, no sólo americano, sino europeo también.
La polarización del autor respecto a la teoría sesga ligeramente toda la exposición, pero no le resta ningún valor.
Un libro magnífico, muy bien escrito, iluminador.
Das Buch rüttelt auf und veranlasst auch den Laien, sein persönliches "Weltverständnis" zu überdenken.
Ein notwendiges Buch, das zur Besinnung auffordert.
Dr.med.Henner Matthis, Neurologe
