Large Hadron Collider

[Yamialpha]

What do you think about it? Will it be worthwhile? Do you believe it will make revolutionary discoveries? My personal biggest hope is that it will discover direct evidence for supersymmetry. Here is an article concerning the LHC if anyone is not familiar with it.

http://info.web.cern.ch/Press/PressReleases/Releases1997/PR07.97ELHC-US.html

 

[Locrian]

Well, all advances in high energy physics (hep) the second half of the 20th century were driven by experiments - theory really did nothing for anyone. Most theoretical meanderings in hep during the past 20 years have been monumental failures - string theory being the most obvious example.

So yes, it is good to see some real experimentation being done. Overall, the thing is pretty cheap given the economies of the nations investing in it. Still, it won't answer many of the most pertinent questions.

 

[Illuminatus]

Well, all advances in high energy physics (hep) the second half of the 20th century were driven by experiments - theory really did nothing for anyone. Most theoretical meanderings in hep during the past 20 years have been monumental failures - string theory being the most obvious example.

How can you say that string theory is a monumental failure? It's a viable, workable scientific theory. Has it been tested yet? No. The technology wasn't available to do so. Now we're getting close to the point where we can test it, and even if the theory itself is a failure, it has still benefitted the scientific community in that it helped to drive technological advancement.

 

[Locrian]

Currently string theory isn't testable; it lacks any kind of uniqueness that allows it to predict anything at all. There is certainly still hope, but many are becoming more and more cynical. It isn't even a matter of it being wrong; it's a matter of it being anything.

There is absolutely no agreement in the string theory community - not even a majority/minority or such opinion - on predicting what will be seen in the LHC. Most string theorists aren't sure they'll be able to do anything with the information at all. If you look at recent conferences, they are quite clear about this.

String theory has driven no technological advancements. Experimentalists do not require a bunch of guys producing meandering mathematics who cant tell them even what regime new things might be found in to do experiments. Better people than me have made arguments that theory has done nothing the last 50 years. Some of them are theorists.

Don't be so quick to eat up whatever PBS sells you.

 

[Deamiter]

String theory is fun to think about (there's certainly enough people doing that sort of thinking these days) but as Locrian said, it really has contributed nothing.

When it first came out, it was quite interesting just because it might have better explained the fundementals of our universe. Until there's clear enough math to merge all the speculation into one or two real theories... it really is just speculation. Perhaps experiments like those from the LHC will affect string theories as they stand today, but it's not worth holding your breath for.

 

[Yamialpha]

Perhaps it's not a matter of string theory being non-existent as much as just really, really ahead of its time. I've heard that it would take an accelerator the size of the galaxy to find a string. Anything at the Planck length is far beyond the capabilities of the experimental community for a long time.

Despite the fact that string theory so far has little promise, it's still an intriguing thought. I'd question as to whether or not theorists should devote their lives to it. Than again, if it is the Holy Grail of physics, then maybe we're not spending enough time on it! In any sense, we just currently have no way of knowing. I did list the possible experiments that would assist the case for string theory on the string theory thread if anyone is interested.