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Exploring Superstrings in the Lab

Posted by Zonk on from the knitting-a-scarf dept.

ultracool writes "Physicists at Utrecht University in the Netherlands have come up with a way of observing a superstring by utilizing Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC). A one-dimensional BEC in an optical lattice is rapidly rotated, causing a quantized vortex to form. The bosonic part of the superstring consists of this vortex line. Inside the vortex, they would trap an ultracold cloud of fermionic atoms. Hopefully this will allow observation of the supersymmetry between bosons and fermions, thus providing the first experimental evidence to support superstring theory."

6 of 312 comments (clear)

  1. More info... by KeiserSoze · · Score: 5, Informative

    A more detailed explanation of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superstringssuperstri ngs.

  2. It might not hurt... by daveschroeder · · Score: 5, Informative

    ...to refer people to more information on Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC):

    BEC wikipedia page
    BEC home page at Colorado
    BEC at NIST
    What is a BEC?

  3. Re:Supersymmetry != string theory by Stalyn · · Score: 5, Informative

    Witten said that proving supersymmetry would be helpful in understanding string theory. From what I understand supersymmetry down the road implies string theory. So if supersymmetry is disproved by implication so is string theory. However if supersymmetry is proved is does not prove string theory. But rather add towards understanding and maybe later proving string theory.

    but IANAST.

    --
    The best education consists in immunizing people against systematic attempts at education. - Paul Feyerabend
  4. Re:Supersymmetry != string theory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    I'm also not a string theorist, but I believe that (string theory) + (supersymmetry) = (superstrings). This seems to be an attempt to construct a condensed matter analog of the superstring theory that could underly particle physics. In other words, it's an analog that doesn't necessarily mean that superstrings are or are not the underlying fundamental theory of physics.

  5. Re:I suppose it makes sense to physicists by Dr.+Weird · · Score: 5, Informative
    If some object is made up of an even number of fermions, it is a boson, otherwise it is a fermion (the neutrons and protons that make up the nuclei of the atom are each fermions, as are the electrons surrounding it).

    Now, for the reason: if you know some quantum physics, think of taking two composite objects and interchanging them; fermions wavefunctions change sign under this interchange. For the composite object, its wavefunction looks like (an anti-symmetrized) product of single-particle wavefunctions. If those are fermionic and there are an odd number of them in the composite wave function, interchanging the two composite wavefunctions will produce an odd number of sign changes in the product, for an overlal sign change. If there are instead an even number of fermionic single-particle wavefunctions in the composite wavefunction, the resulting even number of sign changes under interchange produces no net sign change in the many-body wavefunction.

    This is easily extended to composite objects that are a composite of both bosons and fermions.

  6. Ummm... Reality check. by volsung · · Score: 5, Informative
    Not to rain on anyone's parade, but based on that article, this is NOT a test of supersymmetry or string theory in the sense the article blurb leads you to believe. (Surprised?) These physicists have thought up a clever way to create an analog to a superstring out of a macroscopic quantum system. The neat thing about condensed matter physics is that you can concoct systems that behave like more fundamental systems which you can't easily create. You can then test the implications of a particular mathematical model.

    So this is very cool (literally!) science, but NOT a test of superstring theory as a way to describe fundamental particles or interactions. At best, it will provide some interesting checks of the mathematical predictions of string-like theories, but only translated into this system. You still won't know if string theory has any hope of describing real electrons, photons, gravitons, etc.