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M2-brane
In theoretical physics, an M2-brane, is a spatially extended mathematical object (brane) that appears in string theory and in related theories (e.g. M-theory, F-theory). In particular, it is a solution of eleven-dimensional supergravity which possesses a three-dimensional world volume. Description The M2-brane solution can be found by requiring (Poincare)_\times SO(8) symmetry of the solution and solving the supergravity equations of motion with the p-brane ansatz. The solution is given by a metric and three- form gauge field which, in isotropic coordinates, can be written as : \begin ds^_ &= \left(1+\frac\right)^dx^ dx^\eta_ + \left(1+\frac\right)^dx^dx^\delta_ \\ F_ &= \epsilon_ \partial_\left(1+\frac\right)^, \quad \mu=1,\ldots ,3 \quad i=4,\ldots , 11,\end where \eta is the flat-space metric and the distinction has been made between world volume x^\mu and transverse x^i coordinates. The constant q is proportional to the charge of the brane which is given by the integral o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brane
In string theory and related theories such as supergravity theories, a brane is a physical object that generalizes the notion of a point particle to higher dimensions. Branes are dynamical objects which can propagate through spacetime according to the rules of quantum mechanics. They have mass and can have other attributes such as charge. Mathematically, branes can be represented within categories, and are studied in pure mathematics for insight into homological mirror symmetry and noncommutative geometry. ''p''-branes A point particle can be viewed as a brane of dimension zero, while a string can be viewed as a brane of dimension one. In addition to point particles and strings, it is possible to consider higher-dimensional branes. A ''p''-dimensional brane is generally called "''p''-brane". The term "''p''-brane" was coined by M. J. Duff ''et al.'' in 1988; "brane" comes from the word "membrane" which refers to a two-dimensional brane. A ''p''-brane sweeps out a (''p''+1) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
M-theory
M-theory is a theory in physics that unifies all consistent versions of superstring theory. Edward Witten first conjectured the existence of such a theory at a string theory conference at the University of Southern California in 1995. Witten's announcement initiated a flurry of research activity known as the second superstring revolution. Prior to Witten's announcement, string theorists had identified five versions of superstring theory. Although these theories initially appeared to be very different, work by many physicists showed that the theories were related in intricate and nontrivial ways. Physicists found that apparently distinct theories could be unified by mathematical transformations called S-duality and T-duality. Witten's conjecture was based in part on the existence of these dualities and in part on the relationship of the string theories to a field theory called eleven-dimensional supergravity. Although a complete formulation of M-theory is not known, such a formu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
P-brane
In string theory and related theories such as supergravity theories, a brane is a physical object that generalizes the notion of a point particle to higher dimensions. Branes are dynamical objects which can propagate through spacetime according to the rules of quantum mechanics. They have mass and can have other attributes such as charge. Mathematically, branes can be represented within categories, and are studied in pure mathematics for insight into homological mirror symmetry and noncommutative geometry. ''p''-branes A point particle can be viewed as a brane of dimension zero, while a string can be viewed as a brane of dimension one. In addition to point particles and strings, it is possible to consider higher-dimensional branes. A ''p''-dimensional brane is generally called "''p''-brane". The term "''p''-brane" was coined by M. J. Duff ''et al.'' in 1988; "brane" comes from the word "membrane" which refers to a two-dimensional brane. A ''p''-brane sweeps out a (''p''+1) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Membrane (M-theory)
In string theory and related theories such as supergravity theories, a brane is a physical object that generalizes the notion of a point particle to higher dimensions. Branes are dynamical objects which can propagate through spacetime according to the rules of quantum mechanics. They have mass and can have other attributes such as charge. Mathematically, branes can be represented within categories, and are studied in pure mathematics for insight into homological mirror symmetry and noncommutative geometry. ''p''-branes A point particle can be viewed as a brane of dimension zero, while a string can be viewed as a brane of dimension one. In addition to point particles and strings, it is possible to consider higher-dimensional branes. A ''p''-dimensional brane is generally called "''p''-brane". The term "''p''-brane" was coined by M. J. Duff ''et al.'' in 1988; "brane" comes from the word "membrane" which refers to a two-dimensional brane. A ''p''-brane sweeps out a (''p''+ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theoretical Physics
Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain and predict natural phenomena. This is in contrast to experimental physics, which uses experimental tools to probe these phenomena. The advancement of science generally depends on the interplay between experimental studies and theory. In some cases, theoretical physics adheres to standards of mathematical rigour while giving little weight to experiments and observations.There is some debate as to whether or not theoretical physics uses mathematics to build intuition and illustrativeness to extract physical insight (especially when normal experience fails), rather than as a tool in formalizing theories. This links to the question of it using mathematics in a less formally rigorous, and more intuitive or heuristic way than, say, mathematical physics. For example, while developing special relativity, Albert Einstein was concerned wit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
String Theory
In physics, string theory is a theoretical framework in which the point-like particles of particle physics are replaced by one-dimensional objects called strings. String theory describes how these strings propagate through space and interact with each other. On distance scales larger than the string scale, a string looks just like an ordinary particle, with its mass, charge, and other properties determined by the vibrational state of the string. In string theory, one of the many vibrational states of the string corresponds to the graviton, a quantum mechanical particle that carries the gravitational force. Thus, string theory is a theory of quantum gravity. String theory is a broad and varied subject that attempts to address a number of deep questions of fundamental physics. String theory has contributed a number of advances to mathematical physics, which have been applied to a variety of problems in black hole physics, early universe cosmology, nuclear physics, and conde ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
F-theory
In theoretical physics, F-theory is a branch of string theory developed by Iranian physicist Cumrun Vafa. The new vacua described by F-theory were discovered by Vafa and allowed string theorists to construct new realistic vacua — in the form of F-theory compactified on elliptically fibered Calabi–Yau four-folds. The letter "F" supposedly stands for "Father". Compactifications F-theory is formally a 12-dimensional theory, but the only way to obtain an acceptable background is to compactify this theory on a two-torus. By doing so, one obtains type IIB superstring theory in 10 dimensions. The SL(2,Z) S-duality symmetry of the resulting type IIB string theory is manifest because it arises as the group of large diffeomorphisms of the two-dimensional torus. More generally, one can compactify F-theory on an elliptically fibered manifold ( elliptic fibration), i.e. a fiber bundle whose fiber is a two-dimensional torus (also called an elliptic curve). For example, a subcl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Supergravity
In theoretical physics, supergravity (supergravity theory; SUGRA for short) is a modern field theory that combines the principles of supersymmetry and general relativity; this is in contrast to non-gravitational supersymmetric theories such as the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model. Supergravity is the gauge theory of local supersymmetry. Since the supersymmetry (SUSY) generators form together with the Poincaré algebra a superalgebra, called the super-Poincaré algebra, supersymmetry as a gauge theory makes gravity arise in a natural way. Gravitons Like any field theory of gravity, a supergravity theory contains a spin-2 field whose quantum is the graviton. Supersymmetry requires the graviton field to have a superpartner. This field has spin 3/2 and its quantum is the gravitino. The number of gravitino fields is equal to the number of supersymmetries. History Gauge supersymmetry The first theory of local supersymmetry was proposed by Dick Arnowitt and Pran Nath in 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World Line
The world line (or worldline) of an object is the path that an object traces in 4-dimensional spacetime. It is an important concept in modern physics, and particularly theoretical physics. The concept of a "world line" is distinguished from concepts such as an "orbit" or a "trajectory" (e.g., a planet's ''orbit in space'' or the ''trajectory'' of a car on a road) by the ''time'' dimension, and typically encompasses a large area of spacetime wherein perceptually straight paths are recalculated to show their ( relatively) more absolute position states—to reveal the nature of special relativity or gravitational interactions. The idea of world lines originates in physics and was pioneered by Hermann Minkowski. The term is now most often used in relativity theories (i.e., special relativity and general relativity). Usage in physics In physics, a world line of an object (approximated as a point in space, e.g., a particle or observer) is the sequence of spacetime events correspon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metric Tensor (general Relativity)
In general relativity, the metric tensor (in this context often abbreviated to simply the metric) is the fundamental object of study. It may loosely be thought of as a generalization of the gravitational potential of Newtonian gravitation. The metric captures all the geometric and causal structure of spacetime, being used to define notions such as time, distance, volume, curvature, angle, and separation of the future and the past. Notation and conventions Throughout this article we work with a metric signature that is mostly positive (); see sign convention. The gravitation constant G will be kept explicit. This article employs the Einstein summation convention, where repeated indices are automatically summed over. Definition Mathematically, spacetime is represented by a four-dimensional differentiable manifold M and the metric tensor is given as a covariant, second-degree, symmetric tensor on M, conventionally denoted by g. Moreover, the metric is required to be nondegenera ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Differential Form
In mathematics, differential forms provide a unified approach to define integrands over curves, surfaces, solids, and higher-dimensional manifolds. The modern notion of differential forms was pioneered by Élie Cartan. It has many applications, especially in geometry, topology and physics. For instance, the expression is an example of a -form, and can be integrated over an interval contained in the domain of : :\int_a^b f(x)\,dx. Similarly, the expression is a -form that can be integrated over a surface : :\int_S (f(x,y,z)\,dx\wedge dy + g(x,y,z)\,dz\wedge dx + h(x,y,z)\,dy\wedge dz). The symbol denotes the exterior product, sometimes called the ''wedge product'', of two differential forms. Likewise, a -form represents a volume element that can be integrated over a region of space. In general, a -form is an object that may be integrated over a -dimensional manifold, and is homogeneous of degree in the coordinate differentials dx, dy, \ldots. On an -dimensional manifold, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Minkowski Space
In mathematical physics, Minkowski space (or Minkowski spacetime) () is a combination of three-dimensional Euclidean space and time into a four-dimensional manifold where the spacetime interval between any two events is independent of the inertial frame of reference in which they are recorded. Although initially developed by mathematician Hermann Minkowski for Maxwell's equations of electromagnetism, the mathematical structure of Minkowski spacetime was shown to be implied by the postulates of special relativity. Minkowski space is closely associated with Einstein's theories of special relativity and general relativity and is the most common mathematical structure on which special relativity is formulated. While the individual components in Euclidean space and time may differ due to length contraction and time dilation, in Minkowski spacetime, all frames of reference will agree on the total distance in spacetime between events.This makes spacetime distance an invariant. Becaus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
