Читать книгу String Theory For Dummies - Andrew Zimmerman Jones - Страница 21

Another mathematical result of string theory is that the theory makes sense only in a world with more than three space dimensions! (Our universe has three dimensions of space: left/right, up/down, and front/back.) Two possible explanations currently exist for the location of the extra dimensions.

 The extra space dimensions (generally six of them) are curled up (compactified, in string theory terminology) to incredibly small sizes, so we never perceive them.

 We are stuck on a 3-dimensional brane, and the extra dimensions extend off of it and are inaccessible to us.

A major area of research among string theorists is on mathematical models of how these extra dimensions could be related to our own. Some of the recent results have predicted that scientists may soon be able to detect the extra dimensions (if they exist) in upcoming experiments because they may be larger than previously expected. (See Chapter 15 for more about extra dimensions.)