Superstring theory

A framework in theoretical physics that models fundamental particles as one-dimensional strings and incorporates supersymmetry. Its consistent formulations require ten spacetime dimensions, with additional dimensions typically assumed to be compactified.

Worldsheet: The two-dimensional surface traced by a string as it moves through spacetime. String motion is described by fields defined across this surface.
Quantum field theory: A framework combining quantum mechanics with special relativity to describe fields and their particle excitations. String theory seeks a quantum framework that reproduces familiar field theories at low energies.
Dual resonance model: A model developed to describe hadron scattering that later became an early formulation of string theory. String theory began as an attempt to explain strong-interaction scattering.
Loop quantum gravity: A research program that quantizes spacetime geometry without requiring strings or extra dimensions. It pursues quantum gravity without superstring theory’s unification framework.
AdS/CFT correspondence: A conjectured duality between a gravitational theory in anti-de Sitter space and a conformal field theory on its boundary. It provides a precise setting where string theory relates gravity to a non-gravitational quantum theory.
String vibration: Oscillatory modes of a string that correspond to distinct particle states. Different vibration modes supply the theory’s particle spectrum.
General relativity: Einstein’s theory of gravity, in which gravitation arises from spacetime curvature. A massless spin-two string state behaves like a quantum of gravity.
Gabriele Veneziano: An Italian theoretical physicist who proposed a formula describing the scattering of strongly interacting particles. His 1968 amplitude became the starting point for the dual resonance model.
M-theory: A proposed eleven-dimensional framework that relates the five consistent superstring theories and a broader set of objects. It presents the five ten-dimensional superstring theories as connected limits.
Black hole entropy: The entropy associated with a black hole horizon, proportional to its area in Planck units. String theory counts microscopic states for certain black holes, reproducing their entropy.

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