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The Universe as We Understand It May Be Impossible
The Atlantic ^ | Natalie Wolchover and Quanta Magazine

Posted on 10/27/2022 1:59:46 PM PDT by nickcarraway

A new conjecture in physics challenges the leading “theory of everything.”

On June 25, Timm Wrase awoke in Vienna and groggily scrolled through an online repository of newly posted physics papers. One title startled him into full consciousness.

The paper, by the prominent string theorist Cumrun Vafa of Harvard and his collaborators, conjectured a simple formula dictating which kinds of universes are allowed to exist and which are forbidden, according to string theory. The leading candidate for a “theory of everything” weaving the force of gravity together with quantum physics, string theory defines all matter and forces as vibrations of tiny strands of energy. The theory permits some 10500 different solutions: a vast, varied “landscape” of possible universes.* String theorists like Wrase and Vafa have strived for years to place our particular universe somewhere in this landscape of possibilities.

But now, Vafa and his colleagues were conjecturing that in the string landscape, universes like ours—or what ours is thought to be like—don’t exist. If the conjecture is correct, Wrase and other string theorists immediately realized, the cosmos must either be profoundly different than previously supposed or string theory must be wrong.

(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...


TOPICS: Astronomy; Science; Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: astronomy; cumrunvafa; fauxiantroll; fauxiantrolls; mtheory; physics; quantummechanics; science; stringtheory; youngearthdelusion; youngearthdelusions
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To: nickcarraway

String theory is one thing, string reality is different: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yv_QUiDYTTg


41 posted on 10/27/2022 3:08:55 PM PDT by headsonpikes (Mass murder and cannibalism are the twin sacraments of socialism - "Who-whom?"-Lenin)
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To: Songcraft

Great minds etc....


42 posted on 10/27/2022 3:10:13 PM PDT by headsonpikes (Mass murder and cannibalism are the twin sacraments of socialism - "Who-whom?"-Lenin)
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To: ckilmer

The quote is from “Deteriorata,” a Harvard Lampoon production.


43 posted on 10/27/2022 3:10:28 PM PDT by Publius
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To: nickcarraway

String theory is not yet considered solid science.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/String_theory#Criticism


44 posted on 10/27/2022 3:12:06 PM PDT by Honorary Serb (Kosovo is Serbia! Free Srpska! Abolish ICTY!)
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To: nickcarraway

O, the depth of the riches

of the wisdom and knowledge of God!

How unsearchable are His judgments,

and untraceable His ways!

“Who has known the mind of the Lord?

Or who has been His counselor?”

“Who has first given to God,

that God should repay him?”

For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.

To Him be the glory forever! Amen. (Romans 11:33-36)


45 posted on 10/27/2022 3:12:40 PM PDT by boatbums (Lord, make my life a testimony to the value of knowing you.)
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To: nickcarraway

One of the long-standing mysteries of cosmology is why the vacuum energy is such a small value. Based on quantum mechanics mathematics it should be 10E120 times larger than it is.

Maybe it was much larger at the instant of the birth of the universe and decayed very quickly to levels that were masked by the radiation and matter energies that predominated for the first 10 billion years.

Its only now, when the other collapsing gravity energies are so dilute that the tiny expansive energy predominates. Some very interesting questions for continuing research.


46 posted on 10/27/2022 3:13:00 PM PDT by Dave Wright (i)
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To: dfwgator
You are a fluke of the universe.
You have no right to be here.
And whether you can hear it or not,
The universe is laughing behind your back.

Can't hear the Rod Serling narration?
You are not in the audience.
You are a part of the story.

47 posted on 10/27/2022 3:14:16 PM PDT by null and void (← Not delusional, just differently realitied...)
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To: nickcarraway
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or [e]principalities or [f]powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. 18 And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.
48 posted on 10/27/2022 3:15:11 PM PDT by Keflavik76 (Don't want to be a brick in Babylons wall.)
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To: Chad_the_Impaler
10^500 not 10500

Thank you for that. Although I imagine with a complete understanding, we would find there is no limit at all.

49 posted on 10/27/2022 3:15:38 PM PDT by frog in a pot ("Open borders" is an effective weapon when used by those intending to fundamentally remake America.)
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To: RoosterRedux
If the universe is impossible as we understand it, perhaps we need to change our understanding of it.

I saw a a lecture by Michio Kaku, physicist at New York University, in which he stated that he has come to the reckoning that a universe created by intelligent design is probably its best explanation. He said that the everything in the universe is so finely tuned, to include the four forces of nature, that the odds of everything accidently happening just right could be 1 of 10^200.

50 posted on 10/27/2022 3:16:56 PM PDT by Right_Wing_Madman
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To: null and void
National Lampoon: "Deteriorata"
51 posted on 10/27/2022 3:18:15 PM PDT by Publius
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To: MtnClimber

Or, as MtnClimber said:

I regret to inform you that if you cannot hear the Rod Serling narration then it means you are not in the audience. You are a part of the story.


52 posted on 10/27/2022 3:19:40 PM PDT by null and void (← Not delusional, just differently realitied...)
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To: Boogieman
Wow, 1981...These guys were ahead of their time (astrophysically speaking). I liked the beat; LOL, I'll give it an eight...
53 posted on 10/27/2022 3:19:47 PM PDT by PerConPat (A politician is an animal which can sit on a fence and yet keep both ears to the ground. - Mencken)
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To: headsonpikes

:-)

54 posted on 10/27/2022 3:29:02 PM PDT by Songcraft
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To: nickcarraway
or string theory must be wrong

Hmmm.

55 posted on 10/27/2022 3:29:56 PM PDT by fruser1
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To: nickcarraway

>>The cats will never understand the books in the library—but both cats and the library are real.

The difference is that the cats are not at all bothered by their lack of understanding the books.


56 posted on 10/27/2022 3:30:14 PM PDT by FarCenter
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To: nickcarraway

“have strived”? Conservatives would use “have striven”.


57 posted on 10/27/2022 3:33:41 PM PDT by FarCenter
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To: nickcarraway

Just what I needed. Another ridiculous article on the nature of the Universe.

String theory doesn’t dictate which kinds of universes are allowed to exist. No theory dictates anything. Theories are an attempt to understand.

The Universe is not impossible. What I find amusing is some peoples’ attempts to declare that they understand the Universe. I don’t. I remain in awe as the vastness of it, and take in the beauty of God’s creation, fully aware that a finite, mortal mind cannot encompass the infinite and immortal.

I don’t care if Sheldon Cooper thinks string theory is the greatest thing.


58 posted on 10/27/2022 3:53:27 PM PDT by I want the USA back (Our news media isn't worth camel spit.)
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To: seowulf

59 posted on 10/27/2022 3:59:15 PM PDT by Bobalu (Computers are like Old Testament gods; lots of rules and no mercy.)
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To: Chad_the_Impaler

Just a tad bit off...


60 posted on 10/27/2022 4:02:24 PM PDT by kosciusko51
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