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examined at the most minute distance scales, far smaller than anything our present technology can access, is their true stringlike
character apparent. As in the point-particle case, the two strings collide and again annihilate each other in a flash. The flash, a
photon, is itself a string in a particular vibrational pattern. Thus, the two incoming strings interact by merging together and
producing a third string, as shown in Figure 6.7. Just as in our point-particle description, this string travels a bit, and then releases
the energy derived from the two initial strings by dissociating into two strings that travel onward. Again, from any but the most
microscopic perspective, this will look just like the point-particle interaction of Figure 6.6.

There is, however, a crucial difference between the two descriptions. We

emphasized that the point-particle interaction occurs at an identifiable point
in space and time, a location that all observers can agree on. As we shall
now see, this is not true for interactions between strings. We will show this
by comparing how George and Gracie, two observers in relative motion as
in Chapter 2, would describe the interaction. We will see that they do not
agree on where and when the two strings touch for the first time.

To do so, imagine that we view the interaction between two strings with a
camera whose shutter is kept open so that the whole history of the process is
captured on one piece of film.48 We show the result—known as a string
world-sheet—in Figure 6.7(c). By "slicing" the world-sheet into parallel
pieces—much as one slices a loaf of bread—the moment-by-moment history
of the string interaction can be recovered. We show an example of this
slicing in Figure 6.8. Specifically, in Figure 6.8(a) we show George, intently
focused on the two incoming strings, together with an attached plane that
slices through all events in space that occur at the same time, according to
his perspective. As we have done often in previous chapters, we have
suppressed one spatial dimension in this diagram for visual clarity. In
reality, of course, there is a three-dimensional array of events that occur at
the same time according to any observer. Figures 6.8(b) and 6.8(c) give a
couple of snapshots at subsequent times—subsequent "slices" of the world-
sheet—showing how George sees the two strings approach each other. Of Figure 6.8 The two incoming strings from
central importance, in Figure 6.8(c) we show the instant in time, according George's perspective at three consecutive
to George, when the two strings first touch and merge together, producing moments in time. In (a) and (b) the strings are
the third string. getting closer together; at (c) they touch for the
first time, from his viewpoint.
Let's now do the same for Gracie. As discussed in Chapter 2, the relative
motion of George and Gracie implies that they do not agree on what events occur at the same time. From Gracie's perspective the
events in space that occur simultaneously lie on a different plane, as shown in Figure 6.9. That is, from Gracie's perspective, the
world-sheet of Figure 6.7(c) must be "sliced" into pieces at a different angle in order to reveal the moment-by-moment progression
of the interaction.

In Figures 6.9(b) and 6.9(c) we show subsequent moments in time, now according to Gracie, including the moment when she sees
the two incoming strings touch and produce the third string.

By comparing Figures 6.8 (c) and 6.9 (c), as we do in Figure 6.10, we see that George and Gracie do not agree on when and where
the two initial strings first touch—where they interact. The string, being an extended object, ensures that there is no unambiguous
location in space or moment in time when the strings first interact—rather, it depends upon the state of motion of the observer.

If we apply exactly the same reasoning to the interaction of point particles, as summarized in Figure 6.11, we recover the
conclusion stated earlier –there is a definite point in space and moment in time when the point particles interact. Point particles

48
Of course, a camera works by collecting photons that bounce off the object of interest and recording them on a piece of photographic film. Our use of a camera in this example is
symbolic, since we are not imagining bouncing photons off of the colliding strings. Rather, we simply want to record in Figure 6.7(c) the whole history of the interaction. Having said that,
we should point out one further subtle point that the discussion in the text glosses over. We learned in Chapter 4 that we can formulate quantum mechanics using Feynman's sum-over-
paths method, in which we analyze the motion of objects by combining contributions from all possible trajectories that lead from some chosen starting point to some chosen destination
(with each trajectory contributing with a statistical weight determined by Feynman). In Figures 6.6 and 6.7 we show one of the infinite number of possible trajectories followed by point
particles (Figure 6.6) or by strings (Figure 6.7) taking them from their initial positions to their final destinations. The discussion in this section, however, applies equally well to any of the
other possible trajectories and therefore applies to the whole quantum-mechanical process itself. (Feynman's formulation of point-particle quantum mechanics in the sum-over-paths
framework was generalized to string theory through the work of Stanley Mandelstarn of the University of California at Berkeley and by the Russian physicist Alexander Polyakov, who is
now on the faculty of the physics department of Princeton University.)