String Theory and Loop Quantum Gravity

By Adam Brown Dec. 2013

Introduction

String Theory is one of the most popular theories about the way the universe

works. However, some physicists believe that this theory falls short to theorize everything. Is there a theory that could go beyond the bounds of string theory to theorize everything? Loop Quantum Gravity is gives another approach to how the universe works. Both theories are unique and difcult to understand without using complex mathematical equations. Yet, by examining these two theories from the back ground of General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics, anyone can gain a basic understanding of the two theories.

General Relativity

Before String Theory and Loop Quantum Gravity surfaced, Sir Isaac Newton

made a profound discovery of the laws of gravity. By applying his 3 laws of motion to the physical world, Newton was able to conclude that there is a power of gravity tending to all bodies, proportional to the several quantities of matter which they contain. From his laws of universal gravitation, he could explain the motions of the six known planets of the time, as well as the moons, comets, equinoxes, and tides. (Hawking 2004) Newtons equations about the force of gravity are so accurate, that we still use them today. However, Newton could describe the strength of gravity; but was unable to gure out how gravity actually works.

What Newton has done for our understanding of gravity, Einstein had done for

our view of time and space, managing in the process to overthrow the Newtonian concept of time. (Hawking 2004)

In the early 1900s, Albert Einstein"s intense study of light brought new

understanding to how the world viewed gravity. Einstein came to the conclusion that light was a cosmic speed limit and nothing can travel faster than it, not even gravity. Yet according to Newton, gravity happened instantaneously throughout the universe. Over the years, Einstein came to understand space as a type of fabric, and this fabric is warped and stretched by heavy objects like planets and stars. It is this warping that causes the effect we feel as gravity. This concept is very hard to understand when thinking about the fabric as three dimensional. It is much easier to understand by viewing it on a two dimensional plain.

According to Newton, if the sun suddenly disappears, the earth would instantly

feel the effect of the loss of gravity and be launched into space on its same trajectory. Yet, according to Einstein"s new understanding of space as a fabric, when the sun disappears, it would cause a rippling effect, much like waves in a pond when you drop a pebble into it. The earth would remain on its course until the ripples hit it and launched it from its place into space. Einstein calculated these ripples of gravity to travel as fast as the speed of light. This is General Relativity. (Greene 2010)

Quantum Mechanics

The study of Quantum Mechanics will takes us into a world much smaller than

the one we are familiar with. General Relativity has to do with the study of large objects, and Quantum Mechanics studies tiny things such as particles and atoms. In the quantum realm we nd that the laws that govern there will appear to be completely different from the familiar laws that govern big everyday objects. For example, if we were to study a particle inside of an atom, we would not know exactly where it was. It could be almost anywhere, until we looked for it. At that point we would nd it, other than that it would be doing its own thing. This realm seems to be completely chaotic compared to the larger world. Yet, over the past 75 years, scientists have been using quantum laws to make predictions of how atoms and particles behave, and experiment after experiment, quantum laws have always been right. (Green 2010)

Quantum Gravity

Given the information about general relativity and quantum mechanics, these two

theories live in the same world, but of different sizes. We have found that respectively, these theories are tremendously accurate. Knowing this, there should be a way to tie them together into a single theory of everything. But, when quantum theory is put into general relativity, a lot of nonsense and innity answers come from the equations, and vice versa with Quantum Mechanics. The theory of quantum gravity relies on having a

unied theory between general relativity and quantum mechanics. The leading theories are String Theory and Loop Quantum Gravity.

String Theory

In 1919 a German mathematician Theodor Kaluza, theorized that the universe

contained more then the 3-dimensions the world is familiar with. These dimensions were important because they helped explain how electromagnetic force worked. This theory was also important because if it was able to be applied to the universe, it would be able to become the unied theory of everything. However, many physicists at the time, including Einstein, tried to apply the new dimensions to the physics of the universe, and failed in the endeavor. It simply did not work. It wasn"t until a few decades later, this idea of different dimensions was revisited in a different way. ! ! In the world today, physicists have come upon a new theory to try to theorize

everything which is called String Theory. This theory helps answer the question, what are the basic fundamentals making up the world around us. To begin explaining what this theory is, try to imagine examine an object. If you were to look or dive deep in to that object, you would nd that it was made up of atoms. If you dove deeper you would nd that the atoms are made up of electrons swarming around a nucleus, which has neutrons and protons. If you dove deeper still, then you would see the quarks making up these particles, and now in the quarks you would see tiny dancing or vibrating laments of energy. These tiny laments, or strings is how string theory gets its name.

The strings vibrate similar to a guitar string, they can vibrate in different patterns. When they vibrate at different frequencies, they produce different particles, and the different particles produce everything in the universe. This is the unication. String Theory unies the super small with the super large. However, When studying the mathematics of String Theory, it does not work with a universe of 3 dimensions. It only works in a world with 10 dimensions of space and 1 dimension of time.

Loop Quantum Gravity ! As discussed above, General Relativity in the quantum world does not

correspond well. String Theory demonstrates a unique idea of different dimensions making up the universe, which is harmoniously formed by tiny vibrating strings. String Theory came about by physicist studying Quantum Mechanics, whereas Loop Quantum Gravity came from physicists studying General Relativity. Loop Quantum Gravity is an attempt to unify the principles of General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics from a totally different way then that of String Theory. Loop Quantum Gravity is focused on space time structure. As hinted at above, General Relativity is based on a beautiful geometry happening throughout large objects, and Quantum Mechanics is built on probabilities. Loop Quantum Gravity explains that everything is born on a quantum level. There is no background or in other words there is not a constant space time fabric, instead it is a foamy fabric of a network of interacting loops. Most work in String Theory uses higher dimensions to solve equations and predictions. Loop quantum gravity, on the other hand is background independent, and does not need different

dimensions to make sense of the universe. (Loll 1998) The main emphasis is to unify gravity with other forces of nature.

The Big Bang and Black Holes

One of the most popular theories derived from Loop Quantum Gravity is that of

the Big Bounce Theory as opposed to the Big Bang. The Big Bang is a theory that tells the origin of the universe. It states that about 14 billion years ago, all the matter and energy of the universe was compiled in a singularity, or one point, which exploded and rapidly expanded into the universe known today. Along the line of the Big Bang, there is also a theory of the Big Crunch, which in effect says that the universe will collapse on itself back into that singularity. Modern science says the universe has an innite amount of density, where Loop Quantum Gravity states it only has a nite amount. The Big Bounce puts the Big Bang and Big Crunch theories together, stating that the universe will continue to expand, and then it will contract, and then expand again. It states that before this universe was, there was another universe that reached its maximum density and contracted, not into a singularity, but it compressed to a certain size and then exploded. This theory creates the loop of Loop Quantum Gravity. This theory has been applied to models of Black Holes, since it has been reasoned that Black Holes should function similar to that of the Big Bang. The tests on models have been very successful.

String Theory is in no sense behind when it comes to explaining Black Holes.

Over the past 10 years, String Theories main achievement has been an explanation of

Black Hole entropy. Entropy means, a thermodynamic quantity representing the amount of energy in a system. (Horowitz 2010) It has been discovered that Black Holes can decay. When they decay, the temperature actually rises, and gets hotter and hotter, while the entropy gets smaller and smaller. This is important because Black Holes have become known as solutions to Einstein"s equations. String Theory helps prove the equations when dealing with models, but is very hard to be useful as actual experiments since it deals with multiple dimensions. Conclusion ! These two theories, namely, String Theory and Loop Quantum Gravity, both have

strong points and weak points when looked into more in depth. Many physicists today believe that these theories may be able to be combined into one strong theory of everything, but for now they are left to themselves. Physicists are continuing to test and experiment these theories to expand our understanding of the universe.

Reference page Gary Horowitz 2010, UC Santa Barbara, String Theory: The Past Ten Years Greene, Brian 2010, The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory. Hawking, Steven 2004, On the Shoulder Of Giants. Loll R 1998 Discrete approaches to quantum gravity in four dimensions Living Rev. Rel.113 T. Thiemann 2002. Lectures on Loop Quantum Gravity http://curiosity.discovery.com/question/big-bounce-theory