Unlike perturbation theory, matrix models can be numerically simulated on computers, getting around some of the notorious difficulty of string-theory calculations. Although the matrices would have to ...

Roughly speaking, he says, a mathematical formula that describes how the guitar string vibrates is what a string-theory formula would look like. The theory had immediate appeal.

String theory strutted onto the scene some 30 years ago as perfection itself, a promise of elegant simplicity that would solve knotty problems in fundamental physics—including the notoriously ...

For specific applications of the L-function they describe, they found that their results correspond to another specific result from string theory.

Physicists looking for a way to test their theory about strings might make more progress if they tangle them up. String theory — equations that aspire to explain all of nature’s particles and ...

Now, physicists are still trying to understand the mechanics of string theory, which require very different initial conditions to function such as extra dimensions and flavours.

In a quantum theory of point particles, a fundamental quantity is the correlation function, which measures the probability for a particle to propagate from one point to another.

Roughly speaking, he says, a mathematical formula that describes how the guitar string vibrates is what a string-theory formula would look like. The theory had immediate appeal.

In a quantum theory of point particles, a fundamental quantity is the correlation function, which measures the probability for a particle to propagate from one point to another.

Because string theory's predictions are vast and varied, the researchers instead asked if there's a simple particle scenario that string theory just can't accommodate.

String theorists are shifting focus to solve some rather sticky problems in physics. Over the past few years, string theory has been less about trying to find a unifying description of all forces ...