Superstring theory

Article By:

Dine, Michael Department of Physics and Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics, University of California, Santa Cruz, California.

Last reviewed:January 2021

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.670225

A proposal for a unified theory of all interactions, including gravity. At present, the strong, weak, and electromagnetic interactions are accounted for within the framework of the standard model. This model correctly describes experiments up to the highest energies performed so far, and gives a complete description of the elementary particles and their interactions down to distances of the order of 10⁻¹⁸ m. Nevertheless, it has serious limitations, and attempts to overcome them and to unify the forces of nature have been only partly successful. Moreover, these attempts have left standing fundamental difficulties in reconciling gravitation and the laws of quantum mechanics. Superstring theory represents an ambitious program to unify all of the interactions observed in nature, including gravitation, in a theory with no unexplained parameters. In other words, this theory, if successful, should be able to account for all of the particles observed in nature and their interactions.

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