NEW HAVEN, Conn., May 13 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists said it might be possible to test string theory using extremely sensitive measurements of the Big Bang's afterglow.
String theory -- which is understood only by a relative few physicists -- attempts to unify gravity with the three fundamental forces of the universe -- electromagnetism and the strong and weak nuclear forces. These main properties of nature are now described by two, seemingly incompatible theories -- Einstein's general relativity and quantum physics -- both of which remain incomplete.
Scientists at Yale University said evidence supporting string theory may be found by careful measurement of the cosmic microwave background -- the faint leftover radiation from the Big Bang.
String theory reveals itself only over extreme small distances or extremely high energies. Even a tiny hydrogen atom is 10 trillion-trillion times as wide as the distance involved in string theory. But the scientists said studies of the CMB could reveal subtle temperature differences, which were locked in like waves on a frozen pond when the universe was infinitesimally smaller than its current size, thus linking those differences to the effects of string theory.
