Twistor String Theory
   HOME
*





Twistor String Theory
Twistor string theory is an equivalence between N = 4 supersymmetric Yang–Mills theory and the perturbative topological B model string theory in twistor space. It was initially proposed by Edward Witten in 2003. Twistor theory was introduced by Roger Penrose from the 1960s as a new approach to the unification of quantum theory with gravity. Twistor space is a three-dimensional complex projective space in which physical quantities appear as certain structural deformations. Spacetime and the familiar physical fields emerge as consequences of this description. But twistor space is chiral (handed) with left- and right-handed objects treated differently. For example, the graviton for gravity and the gluon for the strong force are both right-handed.Twistor theory ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


N = 4 Supersymmetric Yang–Mills Theory
''N'' = 4 supersymmetric Yang–Mills (SYM) theory is a mathematical and physical model created to study particles through a simple system, similar to string theory, with conformal symmetry. It is a simplified toy theory based on Yang–Mills theory that does not describe the real world, but is useful because it can act as a proving ground for approaches for attacking problems in more complex theories. It describes a universe containing bosonic field, boson fields and fermion fields which are related by four Supersymmetry, supersymmetries (this means that swapping boson, fermion and scalar fields in a certain way leaves the predictions of the theory invariant). It is one of the simplest (because it has no free parameters except for the gauge group) and one of the few finite quantum field theories in 4 dimensions. It can be thought of as the most symmetric field theory that does not involve gravity. Meaning of ''N'' and numbers of fields In ''N'' supersymmetric Yang– ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Topological String Theory
In theoretical physics, topological string theory is a version of string theory. Topological string theory appeared in papers by theoretical physicists, such as Edward Witten and Cumrun Vafa, by analogy with Witten's earlier idea of topological quantum field theory. Overview There are two main versions of topological string theory: the topological A-model and the topological B-model. The results of the calculations in topological string theory generically encode all holomorphic quantities within the full string theory whose values are protected by spacetime supersymmetry. Various calculations in topological string theory are closely related to Chern–Simons theory, Gromov–Witten invariants, mirror symmetry, geometric Langlands Program, and many other topics. The operators in topological string theory represent the algebra of operators in the full string theory that preserve a certain amount of supersymmetry. Topological string theory is obtained by a topological twist of t ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Twistor Space
In mathematics and theoretical physics (especially twistor theory), twistor space is the complex vector space of solutions of the twistor equation \nabla_^\Omega_^=0 . It was described in the 1960s by Roger Penrose and Malcolm MacCallum. According to Andrew Hodges, twistor space is useful for conceptualizing the way photons travel through space, using four complex numbers. He also posits that twistor space may aid in understanding the asymmetry of the weak nuclear force. Informal motivation In the (translated) words of Jacques Hadamard: "the shortest path between two truths in the real domain passes through the complex domain." Therefore when studying four-dimensional space \mathbb^4 it might be valuable to identify it with \mathbb^2. However, since there is no canonical way of doing so, instead all isomorphisms respecting orientation and metric between the two are considered. It turns out that complex projective 3-space \mathbb^3 parametrizes such isomorphisms together with ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Edward Witten
Edward Witten (born August 26, 1951) is an American mathematical and theoretical physicist. He is a Professor Emeritus in the School of Natural Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. Witten is a researcher in string theory, quantum gravity, supersymmetric quantum field theories, and other areas of mathematical physics. Witten's work has also significantly impacted pure mathematics. In 1990, he became the first physicist to be awarded a Fields Medal by the International Mathematical Union, for his mathematical insights in physics, such as his 1981 proof of the positive energy theorem in general relativity, and his interpretation of the Jones invariants of knots as Feynman integrals. He is considered the practical founder of M-theory.Duff 1998, p. 65 Early life and education Witten was born on August 26, 1951, in Baltimore, Maryland, to a Jewish family. He is the son of Lorraine (née Wollach) Witten and Louis Witten, a theoretical physicist specializing in gra ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  




Twistor Theory
In theoretical physics, twistor theory was proposed by Roger Penrose in 1967 as a possible path to quantum gravity and has evolved into a branch of theoretical and mathematical physics. Penrose proposed that twistor space should be the basic arena for physics from which space-time itself should emerge. It leads to a powerful set of mathematical tools that have applications to differential and integral geometry, nonlinear differential equations and representation theory and in physics to general relativity and quantum field theory, in particular to scattering amplitudes. Development seems to be indirectly influenced by Einstein–Cartan–Sciama–Kibble theory. Overview Mathematically, projective twistor space \mathbb is a 3-dimensional complex manifold, complex projective 3-space \mathbb^3. It has the physical interpretation of the space of massless particles with spin. It is the projectivisation of a 4-dimensional complex vector space, non-projective twistor space \mathbb w ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Roger Penrose
Sir Roger Penrose (born 8 August 1931) is an English mathematician, mathematical physicist, philosopher of science and Nobel Laureate in Physics. He is Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics in the University of Oxford, an emeritus fellow of Wadham College, Oxford, and an honorary fellow of St John's College, Cambridge and University College London. Penrose has contributed to the mathematical physics of general relativity and cosmology. He has received several prizes and awards, including the 1988 Wolf Prize in Physics, which he shared with Stephen Hawking for the Penrose–Hawking singularity theorems, and one half of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics "for the discovery that black hole formation is a robust prediction of the general theory of relativity". He is regarded as one of the greatest living physicists, mathematicians and scientists, and is particularly noted for the breadth and depth of his work in both natural and formal sciences. Early life and education Bor ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Twistor Space
In mathematics and theoretical physics (especially twistor theory), twistor space is the complex vector space of solutions of the twistor equation \nabla_^\Omega_^=0 . It was described in the 1960s by Roger Penrose and Malcolm MacCallum. According to Andrew Hodges, twistor space is useful for conceptualizing the way photons travel through space, using four complex numbers. He also posits that twistor space may aid in understanding the asymmetry of the weak nuclear force. Informal motivation In the (translated) words of Jacques Hadamard: "the shortest path between two truths in the real domain passes through the complex domain." Therefore when studying four-dimensional space \mathbb^4 it might be valuable to identify it with \mathbb^2. However, since there is no canonical way of doing so, instead all isomorphisms respecting orientation and metric between the two are considered. It turns out that complex projective 3-space \mathbb^3 parametrizes such isomorphisms together with ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

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]  


Scattering Amplitude
In quantum physics, the scattering amplitude is the probability amplitude of the outgoing spherical wave relative to the incoming plane wave in a stationary-state scattering process.''Quantum Mechanics: Concepts and Applications''
By Nouredine Zettili, 2nd edition, page 623. Paperback 688 pages January 2009 The plane wave is described by the : \psi(\mathbf) = e^ + f(\theta)\frac \;, where \mathbf\equiv(x,y,z) is the position vector; r\equiv, \mathbf, ; e^ is the incoming plane wave with the

Grassmannian
In mathematics, the Grassmannian is a space that parameterizes all -Dimension, dimensional linear subspaces of the -dimensional vector space . For example, the Grassmannian is the space of lines through the origin in , so it is the same as the projective space of one dimension lower than . When is a real or complex vector space, Grassmannians are compact space, compact smooth manifolds. In general they have the structure of a smooth algebraic variety, of dimension k(n-k). The earliest work on a non-trivial Grassmannian is due to Julius Plücker, who studied the set of projective lines in projective 3-space, equivalent to and parameterized them by what are now called Plücker coordinates. Hermann Grassmann later introduced the concept in general. Notations for the Grassmannian vary between authors; notations include , , , or to denote the Grassmannian of -dimensional subspaces of an -dimensional vector space . Motivation By giving a collection of subspaces of some vecto ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Amplituhedron
In mathematics and theoretical physics (especially twistor string theory), an amplituhedron is a geometric structure introduced in 2013 by Nima Arkani-Hamed and Jaroslav Trnka. It enables simplified calculation of particle interactions in some quantum field theories. In planar ''N'' = 4 supersymmetric Yang–Mills theory, also equivalent to the perturbative topological B model string theory in twistor space, an amplituhedron is defined as a mathematical space known as the positive Grassmannian. Amplituhedron theory challenges the notion that spacetime locality and unitarity are necessary components of a model of particle interactions. Instead, they are treated as properties that emerge from an underlying phenomenon. The connection between the amplituhedron and scattering amplitudes is a conjecture that has passed many non-trivial checks, including an understanding of how locality and unitarity arise as consequences of positivity. Research has been led by Nima Arkani-Hamed. Ed ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Holomorphic Linking
In mathematics, a holomorphic function is a complex-valued function of one or more complex variables that is complex differentiable in a neighbourhood of each point in a domain in complex coordinate space . The existence of a complex derivative in a neighbourhood is a very strong condition: it implies that a holomorphic function is infinitely differentiable and locally equal to its own Taylor series (''analytic''). Holomorphic functions are the central objects of study in complex analysis. Though the term ''analytic function'' is often used interchangeably with "holomorphic function", the word "analytic" is defined in a broader sense to denote any function (real, complex, or of more general type) that can be written as a convergent power series in a neighbourhood of each point in its domain. That all holomorphic functions are complex analytic functions, and vice versa, is a major theorem in complex analysis. Holomorphic functions are also sometimes referred to as ''regula ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]