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Unified Field
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Question:
Albert Einstein's biggest disappointment was his inability to prove a
unified field theory. Since his attempts, others have endeavored
to succeed. Has there been any resent attempts or developments
in solving the unified field riddle? If so, by whom, and what are
the latest results?
Replies:
Yes, there have been a lot of recent attempts. In fact
rather a flurry of books have been published on the subject
recently (there is one by Leon Lederman, and I think one
by Murray Gel-Mann). The main problem is that we have
some vague theoretical ideas about how the unification
works, but there are almost NO experimental tests that
can be done right now in the region where these theories
really need to be tested to distinguish which one is
right. Part of the purpose of the SSC (killed by Congress)
was to start probing this interesting experimental
regime, to perhaps start winnowing out the many proposed
theories. However, a machine with a power some billion
times that of the SSC would be needed to really probe
the region where things get interesting for unification
(the so-called Planck scale) and that is not likely
to be available anytime in the next millenium.
So, yes there are plenty of theories, but unfortunately,
unlike the situation with Einstein, experiments will
be very necessary to decide which theory is right, and
those experiments do not seem to be even on the horizon
right now.
The other recent book was by Weinberg, not Gel-Mann. There is
an interesting review of it in last October's New York
Times book supplement (forget what it is called) by
Roger Penrose.
Arthur Smith
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Update: June 2012
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