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The Music of String Theory

Even though string theory does away with the previous concept of structureless elementary particles, old language dies hard,
especially when it provides an accurate description of reality down to the most minute of distance scales. Following the common
practice of the field we shall therefore continue to refer to "elementary particles," yet we will always mean "what appear to be
elementary particles but are actually tiny pieces of vibrating string." In the preceding section we proposed that the masses and the
force charges of such elementary particles are the result of the way in which their respective strings are vibrating. This leads us to
the following realization: If we can work out precisely the allowed resonant vibrational patterns of fundamental strings—the
"notes," so to speak, that they can play—we should be able to explain the observed properties of the elementary particles. For the
first time, therefore, string theory sets up a framework for explaining the properties of the particles observed in nature.

At this stage, then, we should "grab hold" of a string and "pluck" it in all sorts of ways to determine the possible resonant patterns
of vibration. If string theory is right, we should find that the possible patterns yield exactly the observed properties of the matter
and force particles in Tables 1.1 and 1.2. Of course, a string is too small to carry out this experiment literally as described. Rather,
by using mathematical descriptions we can theoretically pluck a string. In the mid-1980s, many string adherents believed that the
mathematical analysis required for doing this was on the verge of being able to explain every detailed property of the universe on
its most microscopic level. Some enthusiastic physicists declared that the T.O.E. had finally been discovered. More than a decade
of hindsight has shown that the euphoria generated by this belief was premature. String theory has the makings of a T.O.E., but a
number of hurdles remain, preventing us from deducing the spectrum of string vibrations with the precision necessary to compare
with experimental results. At the present time, therefore, we do not know if the fundamental characteristics of our universe,
summarized in Tables 1.1 and 1.2, can be explained by string theory. As we will discuss in Chapter 9, under certain assumptions
that we will clearly state, string theory can give rise to a universe with properties that are in qualitative agreement with the known
particle and force data, but extracting detailed numerical predictions from the theory is currently beyond our abilities. And so,
although the framework of string theory, unlike that of the point-particle standard model, is capable of giving an explanation for
why the particles and forces have the properties they do, we have not, as yet, been able to extract it. But remarkably, string theory
is so rich and far-reaching that, even though we cannot yet determine its most detailed properties, we are able to gain insight into a
wealth of the new physical phenomena that follow from the theory, as we will see in subsequent chapters.

In the following chapters we shall also discuss the status of the hurdles in some detail, but it is instructive first to understand them
at a general level. Strings in the world around us come with a variety of tensions. The string laced through a pair of shoes, for
example, is usually quite slack compared to the string stretched from one end of a violin to another. Both of these, in turn, are
under far less tension than the steel strings of a piano. The one number that string theory requires in order to set its overall scale is
the corresponding tension on its loops. How is this tension determined? Well, if we could pluck a fundamental string we would
learn about its stiffness, and in this way we could measure its tension much as is done to measure the tension of more familiar
everyday strings. But since fundamental strings are so tiny, this approach cannot be carried out and a more indirect method is
called for. In 1974, when Scherk and Schwarz proposed that one particular pattern of string vibration was the graviton particle,
they were able to exploit such an indirect approach and thereby predict the tension on the strings of string theory. Their
calculations revealed that the strength of the force transmitted by the proposed graviton pattern of string vibration is inversely
proportional to the string's tension. And since the graviton is supposed to transmit the gravitational force—a force that is
intrinsically quite feeble—they found that this implies a colossal tension of a thousand billion billion billion billion (1039) tons, the
so-called Planck tension. Fundamental strings are therefore extremely stiff compared with more familiar examples. This has three
important consequences.

Three Consequences of Stiff Strings

First, whereas the ends of a violin or a piano string are pinned down, ensuring that they have a fixed length, no analogous
constraining frame pins down the size of a fundamental string. Instead, the huge string tension causes the loops of string theory to
contract to a minuscule size. Detailed calculation reveals that being under Planck tension translates into a typical string having
Planck length—10-33 centimeters—as previously mentioned.46

Second, because of the enormous tension, the typical energy of a vibrating loop in string theory is extremely high. To understand
this, we note that the greater the tension a string is under, the harder it is to get it to vibrate. For instance, it's far easier to pluck a

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Based upon insights gleaned from the second superstring revolution (discussed in Chapter 12), Witten and, most notably, Joe Lykken of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
have identified a subtle, yet possible, loophole in this conclusion. Lykken, exploiting this realization, has suggested that it might be possible for strings to be under far less tension, and
therefore be substantially larger in size, than originally thought. So large, in fact, that they might be observable by the next generation of particle accelerators. If this long-shot possibility
turns out to be the case, there is the exciting prospect that many of the remarkable implications of string theory discussed in this and the following chapters will be verifiable
experimentally within the next decade. But even in the more "conventional" scenario espoused by string theorists, in which strings are typically on the order of 10-33 centimeters in length,
there are indirect ways to search for them experimentally, as we will discuss in Chapter 9.