 |
The era of hope or total bullcrapby tienzengong |
The 2016 data (from LHC, LUX, IceCube, etc.) has very much ruled out the dominant paradigms of the theoretical physics of the past half a century: the {SUSY, WIMPs, sterile neutrino, extra-large dimensions, etc.}.
Science is supposed to be a truth-searching machine. But, in the past 45 years, physics (especially the theoretical physics) has been dominated by the M-string theory and its derivatives, SUSY, extra-large dimensions, etc.
This dominance is motivated and supported by the following issues.
One, the super successful of the Standard Model and its obvious incompleteness.
Two, the discovery of dark mass and dark energy.
Three, the discovery of a positive Cosmology Constant.
Four, the totally incompatibility between Quantum principle and General Relativity, while both of them are totally empirically (without a single failure on their predictions).
Five, the hierarchy issue.
Six, the naturalness issue.
Section one: the naturalness and fine-tuning issues
In physics, naturalness is defined as the dimensionless ratios between free parameters or physical constants appearing in a physical theory should take values “of order 1”. That is, a natural theory would have parameter ratios with values like 2.34 rather than 234000 or 0.000234.
This ‘naturalness’ criterion is obviously not discovered in nature but is a human cooked-up desire. This desire came from the failure that the mainstream physics model must hand-put in many parameters in its equations; that is, the desire to avoid the ‘fine-tuning’ any of those parameters.
The ‘naturalness’ and ‘fine-tuning’ are thus closely related but can still form some subgroups.
The obvious ‘naturalness’ issues are:
Hierarchy issue: the difference between weak coupling and gravity is over 30th order of magnitude.
Cosmology Constant: it is over at least 120th order of magnitude smaller than 1.
Higgs boson mass: it is too light for the M-string quantum gravity.
The obvious ‘fine-tuning’ issues are:
Alpha = 1 / (137.0359…): there is no way of calculating this value in the mainstream physics.
Planck CMB data (DE=69.22 % 、D=25.90 % 、V=4.86 %): again, there is no way of calculating these numbers in the mainstream physics.
These are facts. In summary, the ‘naturalness’ issue is all about the following four issues.
#how2CalculateAlpha
#how2CalculatePlanckCMBdata
#how2CalculateHiggsbosonMass
#how2CalculateCosmologyConstant
Section two: SUSY, fulfilling the ‘naturalness-desire
With all the known incompleteness {no gravity, no dark energy, no dark mass, no Cosmology Constant, Hierarchy issue, etc.} of Standard Model, it is totally successful in its own domain, without a single fail. Standard Model is based on ‘gauge symmetry’ + ‘Poincare group’. So extending {‘gauge symmetry’ + ‘Poincare group’} to Super Poincare (SUSY) is mathematically valid. And, it can well be the play dough needed to fill up the cracks of the Standard Model. Why should nature not take such a simple step, especially while SM is very much incomplete? This simple question can easily turn SUSY into a religion.
In addition to some minor successes, SUSY was vindicated by Super String theory. The original String theory is all about the bosonic string. After ‘adapting’ SUSY kid, Super String theory becomes capable of addressing the fermionic string. If Super String theory is correct, how can SUSY not be?
Section three: the revolutions and great successes of the Super String theory
The claimed successes:
One, all the known string theories included a massless spin-two particle that obeyed the correct Ward identities to be a graviton. That is, string theory can be the candidate of quantum gravity, a TOE.
Two, only string theory is able to accommodate chiral fermions like the neutrino; that is, string theory is truly a consistent theory of gravity.
Three, super string theory naturally accommodate SUSY and extra dimensions.
Four, the maximum spacetime dimension in which one can formulate a consistent supersymmetric theory is eleven.
Five, Calabi–Yau manifolds are the compactifications that preserve a realistic amount of supersymmetry.
Six, the low-energy string vibrational patterns (wavelength and amplitude) on Calabi-Yau space correspond to our familiar elementary particles (fermions and bosons). One of the vibrational states of a string corresponds to the graviton. The hole in the Calabi-Yau space represents the family of particles, 3 holes, 3 generations.
That is, {Super string theory, SUSY and Calabi–Yau manifolds} are mutually vindicating one another.
The first revolution:
The confirmation that the 10 dimensional theory is the only valid theory, with superstring theory is 10-dimensional and supergravity theory 11-dimensional. Two dualities (S and T) were discovered.
S-duality: a relationship which says that a collection of strongly interacting particles in one theory can, in some cases, be viewed as a collection of weakly interacting particles in a completely different theory
T-duality: a string propagating around a circle of radius R is equivalent to a string propagating around a circle of radius 1/R in the sense that all observable quantities in one description are identified with quantities in the dual description
The second revolution:
D-branes were discovered to represent the higher-dimensional objects.
The compactification of extra dimensions must use Calabi–Yau manifold.
Then, AdS/CFT correspondence was discovered:
First, to relate string theory to another type of physical theory, such as a quantum field theory.
Second, to relate 11-dimension supergravity to 10-dimension superstring.
Finally, it unified all different superstring theories into an M-string theory.
Furthermore, the AdS/CFT correspondence leads to the discovery of holographic principle which became the dominant tool for dealing with the ‘black hole’ issue.
The third revolution (Not yet claimed):
The large number of possibilities (about 10 ^ 500) arises from different choices of Calabi–Yau manifolds (together with Monstrous moonshine) and different values of generalized magnetic fluxes over different homology cycles leads to the great idea of ‘multiverse’ physics. As this large number is NP complete, no practical (or theoretical) chance of any kind to find the answer {which vacuum corresponds to our (this) universe). That is, ‘multiverse physics’ is now by definition a ‘theology’ which is deemed true regardless of the empirical evidences, as there cannot be any evidence at all (guaranteed by the NP completeness).
Section four: how can all these go wrong?
M-string theorists do admit a few shortcomings on their own.
One, it does not have a consistent formulation (such as Newton’s law or Einstein’s GR equation) to make contact (describe) this real universe. {Note: in this sense, it is not yet physics, but is claimed as the best HOPE.}
Two, it does not know how to define string theory in a single theory (regardless of the claim of M-string). It does also not know whether there is any principle by which string theory selects its vacuum state. Unlike in quantum field theory, string theory does not have a full non-perturbative definition, so many of the theoretical questions that physicists would like to answer remain out of reach.
Three, the goal of string theory is to find a solution of the theory that reproduces the observed spectrum of elementary particles, with a small cosmological constant, containing dark matter and a plausible mechanism for cosmic inflation. But, this goal is far beyond the horizon at this moment.
Four, there is so far no experimental evidence that would unambiguously point to any of these models being a correct fundamental description of nature.
Yet, all these shortcomings are just hiccups for growth pain. When these hiccups are over, then ‘Long Live the M-string’.
Can these hiccups go away?
The general critics has pointed out three fallacies.
One, pseudoscience fallacy: no prediction, emphasized by Peter Woit and Lee Smolin.
Two, self-failing fallacy: failed its stated missions, see Carlo Rovelli’s talk, slide 16.
Three, Gordon Kane’ moving sign post fallacy: seehttp://www.math.columbia.edu/~woit/wordpress/?p=7964
See http://prebabel.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-hope-of-susy-parousia.html
I will add a few obvious fallacies.
One, the Hat-trick fallacy: without adding any additional ingredient, simply stretching a point into a string reaches (creates) the domain of gravity, becoming a TOE. This is a magic, not physics.
See https://tienzengong.wordpress.com/2016/03/16/nothingness-vs-nothing-there-the-quantum-gravity/
Two, the mirage fallacy:
One of the vibrational states of a string corresponds to the graviton.
Only string theory is able to accommodate chiral fermions like the neutrino; that is, string theory is truly a consistent theory of gravity, the quantum gravity.
Super string theory naturally accommodate SUSY and extra dimensions.
But, what is graviton? What is quantum gravity? What is SUSY and extra dimension? These ALL are physics mirages NOW.
Three, long live the King fallacy: anything associated with M-string which failed has been and must be cut. SUSY failed, long live the M-string. Extra dimensions failed, long live the M-string.
Four, the greatness of math fallacy: the validity of a physics theory was never depending upon the math it was using. Yet, some new math was inspired by and from M-string theory, such as the {Calabi–Yau manifold and Monstrous moonshine}. How can M-string be wrong if its math children are valid?
Five, the squire victory fallacy: the squire of M-string {Ads/CFT correspondence, holography principle, condensed physics, etc.} are all victorious. How can the squires be victorious while the master knight fails?
Six, Hot music air fallacy
However, all the above fallacies will be removed if the M-string can solve the ‘naturalness’ issue by deriving (or calculating) the followings:
#how2CalculateAlpha
#how2CalculatePlanckCMBdata
#how2CalculateHiggsbosonMass
#how2CalculateCosmologyConstant
Thus, I have offered a prize award of $10,000 for anyone who is able to derive those nature constants, seehttp://tienzen.blogspot.com/2016/08/two-thumbs-up.html
Section five: era of hope or bullcraps?
If M-string theorists can claim this $10,000 prize, then the era of the past half a century is indeed the era of HOPE.
If M-string theorists claim the ‘only game in town’, then it is the era of BULLCRAP.
This ‘only game in town’ claim becomes ‘dishonesty fallacy’ if those four calculations were done long ago and are available online for long time.
All fallacies are excusable. But, this ‘dishonesty fallacy’ cannot be excused.