Laboratory String
The universe is made up of two types of particles -- together, they carry the fundamental forces of nature. The particles: bosons, such as photons and gluons, and fermions, such as quarks and leptons. Together, bosons and fermions make up everything. Supersymmetry is a theory that binds bosons and fermions via string theory -- the theory that states that all fundamental particles are vibrations on tiny (supersymmetric) strings, at sizes of 10-33 metres. Of course, none of this has been observed -- mere speculation with a hell of a lot of math. Now, researchers from the Utrecht University in the Netherlands have proposed making a "non-relativistic Green-Schwarz superstring" by trapping an ultracold cloud of fermionic atoms along the core of a quantized vortex in a Bose-Einstein condensate. [See a short article on PhysicsWeb.]
What does it all mean? Check out their proposal [PDF] and try to understand it -- but what it does mean, is that if it works, for the first time there will be experimental evidence that superstrings aren't just a mathematical construct -- and that will take us closer to the theory of everything.
What does it all mean? Check out their proposal [PDF] and try to understand it -- but what it does mean, is that if it works, for the first time there will be experimental evidence that superstrings aren't just a mathematical construct -- and that will take us closer to the theory of everything.
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