ABSTRACT:
Superunification of the fundamental interactions underwent a major
paradigm shift in 1984 when eleven-dimensional supergravity was
knocked off its pedestal by ten-dimensional superstrings. 1995
witnessed another shift of equal proportions, however, when
superstrings were themselves superseded by ``M-theory'', a
non-perturbative theory which describes extended objects with two dimensions
(supermembranes) and five dimensions (superfivebranes), which subsumes all
five
consistent string theories and whose low-energy limit is, ironically,
eleven-dimensional supergravity.
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Colloquium Friday, November 16, 2001 4:00 PM Physics Building, Room 204 Note special time. Note special room. |
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