Fuzzy Geometry and the Quantum M-Theory Super-Fivebrane

模糊几何和量子M理论超五膜

• 批准号: EP/C544951/1
• 负责人: Paul Townsend
• 金额: $ 44.46万
• 依托单位: University of Cambridge
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2006 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FC544951%2F1
• 关键词: Fuzzy; Geometry; Quantum; Theory; Super

In the 19th century the impressionist painters invented a new style of painting. Actually, there were two schools of impressionist painters, with very different philosophies. One school was the `pointillists'. If you look closely at a pointillist painting you'll see that it is constructed from individual dots of colour that are bit like 'atoms' of paint. The other school of impressionist painters--let's call them the 'ondulists'--painted in a very different way. From afar, an ondulist painting may look similar to a pointillist painting, but if you look closely you see just a vague wash of brushstrokes. No dots.Any ordinary material has a structure analogous to a pointillist painting. It may appear continuous, but will betray its atomic nature under sufficiently powerful magnification. Could there be extra-ordinary materials that are analogous to an ondulist painting? Well, there is a physical analogy of the ondulists' method: holography. A laser holograph is a piece of film through which laser light is shone to produce a 3D image. An equally remarkable property of a holograph is that any small part of it can be used to produce the entire image! If the negative of an ordinary photograph is cut in half, and one half discarded, then one has lost half the image. Not so with a laser holograph; the whole image is still there, but fuzzier.The word material suggests something substantial, but modern physics, based on the ideas of quantum mechanics and Einstein's theory of 'general relativity', views even the vacuum as a kind of material--let's call it spacetime . Quantum mechanics, which tells us how the atoms of ordinary materials behave, also tells us that spacetime should have a 'quantum' structure. Until recently, we were pointillists, imagining some kind of atomic structure, but now our best theories hint that Nature is an ondulist, and that holography is the appropriate metaphor. My aim is to elucidate the fuzzy nature of quantum spacetime, and work out its consequences for the physical world, via what is called 'M-theory'.In M-theory, the basic building blocks for matter are branes , which is a generic term derived from membranes for an extended object. M theory is not yet a true theory, but rather a collection of interlocking view points, in each of which one brane is dominant. From one such view point, M theory appears to be a theory of fivebranes . I aim to understand how this perspective may lead to a theory of quantum spacetime.

19世纪印象派画家发明了一种新的绘画风格。事实上，印象派画家有两个流派，有着截然不同的哲学。其中一所学校是“点画派”。如果您仔细观察点画派绘画，您会发现它是由单个颜色点构成的，有点像油漆的“原子”。印象派画家的另一流派——让我们称他们为“ondulists”——以一种非常不同的方式进行绘画。从远处看，一幅翁都主义绘画可能看起来与点画派绘画相似，但如果你仔细观察，你会发现只是模糊的笔触。没有点。任何普通材料都具有类似于点彩画的结构。它可能看起来是连续的，但在足够强大的放大倍数下会暴露其原子性质。是否存在类似于 ondulist 绘画的非凡材料？嗯，ondulists 的方法有一个物理类比：全息术。激光全息图是一张胶片，激光通过它照射可产生 3D 图像。全息图的一个同样显着的特性是它的任何一小部分都可以用来生成整个图像！如果将一张普通照片的底片切成两半，然后丢弃一半，那么就失去了一半的图像。激光全息图则不然。整个图像仍然存在，但更加模糊。材料这个词暗示着某种实质性的东西，但现代物理学基于量子力学和爱因斯坦的“广义相对论”理论，甚至将真空视为一种材料——让我们称之为它时空。量子力学告诉我们普通材料的原子如何表现，也告诉我们时空应该具有“量子”结构。直到最近，我们还是点画主义者，想象着某种原子结构，但现在我们最好的理论暗示，大自然是一个ondulist，而全息术是合适的隐喻。我的目标是通过所谓的“M 理论”阐明量子时空的模糊本质，并计算出其对物理世界的影响。在 M 理论中，物质的基本构建块是膜，它是一种通用的源自膜的术语，表示扩展物体。 M理论还不是一个真正的理论，而是一系列相互关联的观点的集合，其中每个观点都有一个膜占主导地位。从这样的观点来看，M 理论似乎是一种五膜理论。我的目的是了解这种观点如何导致量子时空理论。

项目成果

Cosmology, Quantum Vacuum and Zeta Functions - In Honor of Emilio Elizalde

宇宙学、量子真空和 Zeta 函数 - 纪念 Emilio Elizalde

• DOI: http://dx.10.1007/978-3-642-19760-4_27
• 发表时间: 2011
• 作者: Bergshoeff E

On maximal massive 3D supergravity

关于最大质量 3D 超重力

• DOI: 10.1088/0264-9381/27/23/235012
• 发表时间: 2010-07-23
• 期刊: Classical and Quantum Gravity
• 影响因子: 3.5
• 作者: E. Bergshoeff;O. Hohm;J. Rosseel;P. Townsend
• 通讯作者: P. Townsend

Semionic supersymmetric solitons

半子超对称孤子

• DOI: http://dx.10.1088/1751-8113/43/46/465401
• 发表时间: 2010
• 期刊: Mathematical and Theoretical
• 作者: Mezincescu L

Light-cone M5 and multiple M2-branes

光锥 M5 和多个 M2 膜

• DOI: 10.1088/0264-9381/25/24/245003
• 发表时间: 2008-06-29
• 期刊: Classical and Quantum Gravity
• 影响因子: 3.5
• 作者: I. B;os;os;P. Townsend
• 通讯作者: P. Townsend

Self-gravitating Yang monopoles in all dimensions

所有维度的自引力杨单极子

• DOI: http://dx.10.1088/0264-9381/23/15/007
• 发表时间: 2006
• 期刊: Classical and Quantum Gravity
• 影响因子: 3.5
• 作者: Gibbons G