The Elegant Universe - Brian Greene [118]
As we have discussed, a fundamental property of string theory is that it is highly symmetric, incorporating not only intuitive symmetry principles but respecting, as well, the maximal mathematical extension of these principles, supersymmetry. This means, as discussed in Chapter 7, that patterns of string vibrations come in pairs—superpartner pairs—differing from each other by a half unit of spin. If string theory is right, then some of the string vibrations will correspond to the known elementary particles. And due to the supersymmetric pairing, string theory makes the prediction that each such known particle will have a superpartner. We can determine the force charges that each of these superpartner particles should carry, but we do not currently have the ability to predict their masses. Even so, the prediction that superpartners exist is a generic feature of string theory; it is a property of string theory that is true, independent of those aspects of the theory we haven't yet figured out.
No superpartners of the known elementary particles have ever been observed. This might mean that they do not exist and that string theory is wrong. But many particle physicists feel that it means that the superpartners are very heavy and are thus beyond our current capacity to observe experimentally. Physicists are now constructing a mammoth accelerator in Geneva, Switzerland, called the Large Hadron Collider. Hopes run high that this machine will be powerful enough to find the superpartner particles. The accelerator should be ready for operation before 2010, and shortly thereafter supersymmetry may be confirmed experimentally. As Schwarz has said, "Supersymmetry ought to be discovered before too long. And when that happens, it's going to be dramatic."17
You should bear in mind two things, though. Even if superpartner particles are found, this fact alone will not establish that string theory is correct. As we have seen, although supersymmetry was discovered by studying string theory, it has also been successfully incorporated into point-particle theories and is therefore not unique to its stringy origins. Conversely, even if superpartner particles are not found by the Large Hadron Collider, this fact alone will not rule out string theory, since it might be that the superpartners are so heavy that they are beyond the reach of this machine as well.
Having said this, if in fact the superpartner particles are found, it will most definitely be strong and exciting circumstantial evidence for string theory.
Fractionally Charged Particles
Another experimental signature of string theory, having to do with electric charge, is somewhat less generic than superpartner particles but equally dramatic. The elementary particles of the standard model have a very limited assortment of electric charges: The quarks and antiquarks have electric charges of one-third or two-thirds, and their negatives, while the other particles have electric charges of zero, one, or negative one. Combinations of these particles account for all known matter in the universe. In string theory, however, it is possible for there to be resonant vibrational patterns corresponding to particles of significantly different electric charges. For instance, the electric charge of a particle can take on exotic fractional values such as 1/5, 1/11, 1/13, or 1/53, among a variety of other possibilities. These unusual charges can arise if the curled-up dimensions have a certain geometrical property: Holes with the peculiar property that strings encircling them can disentangle themselves only by wrapping around a specified number of times.18 The details are not particularly important, but it turns out that the number of windings required to get disentangled manifests itself in the allowed patterns of vibration by determining the denominator of the fractional charges.
Some Calabi-Yau shapes have this geometrical property while others do not, and for this reason the possibility of unusual electric-charge fractions is not as generic