From: Damien Broderick (damien@ariel.ucs.unimelb.edu.au)
Date: Tue Feb 16 1999 - 05:20:39 MST
At 12:46 PM 2/15/99 -0600, Natasha wrote:
>I need an explanation from someone(s) on the lists of superstring theory;
>why 11 dimensions rather than 12, and also membrane theory.
Take a look at the tale as told by one of the founders, Prof. John H.
Schwarz, California Institute of Technology
http://theory.caltech.edu/people/jhs/strings/index.htm
Superstrings looked good in 10 dimensions, but some calculations were
intractably difficult. Lately, Ed Witten's M-theory showed an additional
symmetry, duality, which yields nonperturbative solutions previously
inaccessible. Because this version is formulated in 11 dimensions, it
allows fundamental or elementary membranes or sheets rather than just
strings. More recently still, F-theory proposes a yet-higher unification
in 12-dimensions. Check the web. Of course the real action is heinously
obscure.
Damien Broderick
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