MAGNET is being levitated by an unseen superconductor in which countless trillions of electrons form a vast interconnected quantum state. Astoundingly, the quantum state of many modern materials is subtly related to the mathematics of black holes.

In Brief
- Matter can assume many forms other than solid, liquid and gas. The electrons that perfuse materials can undergo their own transitions, which involve inherently quantum properties of matter. Superconductors are the best-known example.
- These states of matter arise from an unimaginably complex web of quantum entanglement among the electrons—so complex that theorists studying these materials have been at a loss to describe them.
- Some answers have come from an entirely separate line of study, string theory, typically the domain of cosmologists and high-energy particle theorists. On the face of it, string theory has nothing to say about the behavior of materials—no more than an atomic physicist can explain human society. And yet connections exist.
More In This Article
Several years ago I found myself where I would never have expected: at a conference of string theorists. My own field is condensed matter: the study of materials such as metals and superconductors, which we cool in the laboratory to temperatures near absolute zero. That is about as far as you can possibly get from string theory without leaving physics altogether. String theorists seek to describe the universe at energies far in excess of anything experienced in a lab or indeed anywhere else in the known universe. They explore the exotic physics governing black holes and putative extra spacetime dimensions. For them, gravity is the dominant force in nature. For me, it is an irrelevance.
This difference in subject matter is mirrored by a cultural gap. String theorists have a formidable reputation, and I went to the meeting in awe of their mathematical prowess. I had spent several months reading their papers and books, and I often got bogged down. I was certain I would be dismissed as an ignorant newcomer. For their part, string theorists had difficulty with some of the simplest concepts of my subject. I found myself drawing explanatory pictures that I had only ever used before with beginning graduate students.
This article was originally published with the title Strange and Stringy.
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8 Comments
Add CommentThe two occurrences of the lower case "i" in the first sentence of this teaser article intrigue me. Are they an artifact of an un-edited draft, a signal that educational standards have changed, or a clever attempt to make some point that has, as is not uncommon, gone completely over my head?
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Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDear Sir,
Dr Subir Sachdev with Ref.to your extract mentioned below,why did you express these words "gravity is the dominant force in nature. For me, it is an irrelevance"
taken from your para,My own field is condensed matter: the study of materials such as metals and superconductors
Please note that, practical Resonating "Strings" from string theory can only be Emperically verified in the domain of the low energy Limits ,below the Planck Scale, at resonances produced by the strings of string theories
which acts as a conduit for transmitting the Graviton charges (that carry Energy ,heat and sound convergence to the earths spherically symmetric phase space SURFACE JUNCTION) where the perfect Symmetry & Periodicity of Angular Momentum Dynamical Torque of Planetary Orbitals under Synchronised Phase space time-lock Classical Symmetry Energies Converge, at a fixed Time and Location,producing vibration resonance's of "Phonon's" due to a collective excitation in a periodic synchronised phase space time- freeze lock.
Related to the subject matter of Blog 2, and above article.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this7. patrick 9:44 am 12/22/2012
Ref. the TWO EXTRACT Para’s 1) & 2) from above,
1) Brustein’s insight was that viscosity is not the only fluid property you can measure. Shape is another. If the duality is valid, viscosity and shape will be related in a way that pins down the corresponding theory of gravity. “He’s looking for new observables that are a bit more discriminating than viscosity,” Venugopalan says.
The above are Critical and important word’s from the depths of Wisdom by Ramy Brustein’s….” viscosity and shape ” will be related in a way……….
” HE HITS THE NAIL HEAD RIGHTLY AT ITS DYNAMICAL CENTER…..in his desperate search for Inverse Conicity ” and its physical relationship with the Inverse Log in a Classical Planetary Orbital’s Dynamical Angular Momentum Symmetry.
2) “It’s an actual way of proving the quark-gluon plasma has a gravitational dual,” Brustein says. Things get even more interesting if Einstein’s theory is only an approximation to a deeper theory, as string theory holds. Then the viscosity value will differ from 1/4π and may no longer be universal among substances; the plasma shape will gain some angular structure (a quadrupolar correlation function, to be technical). So the experiment is able to probe post-Einsteinian physics.
The above para 2) is a the Resultant of convergence of Classsical Dynamical Torque Energy output at a physical level in Phase space, applicable to even our Solar System.
There are tremendous advancement’s in Planetary and Orbital Dynamics,as well as Chaos practial application’s of theories.
Angular momentum is not conserved during a Classical symmetry Time-freeze Synchronised Lock,
below is a related extract of Blog 3,
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4:25 am 12/11/2012
Robert L. Oldershaw
Discrete Scale Relativity
Ref. Blog 8, point 12,& inter-related Ref 57. rloldershaw 10:34 PM 12/4/12 “discrete fractal paradigm also is able to elegantly retrodict more than 35 fundamental parameters from the subatomic to the galactic scales.”
1) I am in a confirmed agreement with the physical applications of your para to all orbital Celestial bodies , including the planets,moon”s etc within our Solar System,though the fundamental parameters are RAISED above 65 from the 35 that you mentioned,
2) Included is a Spherical Axis, and a Reverse Cylindrical Axis ,OVERLAPPING AT CERTAIN PERIOD’S OF A FIXED TIME, can be Emperically Verified,within our SOLAR SYSTEM- even from the ground level on earth.
3) Whenever the Angular Momentum of Planetary Celestial Bodies Orbitals sweep through ” EQUEAL ANGLES AT ONE FIXED TIME,IN A PERFECT SYMMETRY FORMATION.
4) We are in “DYNAMICAL CLASSICAL PHASE TRANSITION CONVERGENCE” WHICH CAN BE characterized by the phase diagram, as the critical behavior at the phase transition approaches as a “FUNCTION OF TIME FREEZE IN THE FIFTH DIMENSION”. We find a novel fluctuation induced dynamical CONVERGENCE stability, which occurs at long wavelength-(GRAVITON’S)
“STAGING CASCADE OF DISTANT PARRALLLELISM within a slice of Phase space.” .
Interesting point - "i" suspect the cause is actually the advent of text messaging, which does not comply with formal rules of language - sacrificing them for minimalist typing objectives...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFrom condensed matter physics, I'd be more interested in an investigation into any potential forms of matter that might be physically contained within a BH singularity than a perspective on string theory. I'll reserve judgement until I can read the article, though...
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Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt is a very common and a very human mistake to equate "mathematical prowess" with wisdom and a good conceptual understanding of nature.
Often they are spectacularly anti-correlated.
Since string theorists have to invoke imaginary unobservable "strings" and seven(!) imaginary unobservable dimensions, I am more than a bit suspicious that their basic model and the 10^500 different versions of it are Ptolemaic rubbish.
Still, after 44 years of failure to model anything in nature or even come up with a single definitive prediction, the poor dears keep trying. They get high marks for hype, marketing and dogged perseverance.
Robert L. Oldershaw
http://www3.amherst.edu/~rloldershaw
Discrete Scale Relativity
MOST IMPORTANT ADVANTAGE OF COMPLETE UNIFIED THEORY (TOTAL PAGES – 424, PUBLISHED IN THE YEAR 1998, ISBN: 81-7643-0005), WRITTEN BY Nirmalendu das. EMIAL: nirmalgopa@gmail.com , Mob: India 9475089337.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this1) THE COMPLETE UNIFIED THEORY FOLLOWS THE LAW OF NATURE OR PHYSICS. THIS IS SINGLE THEORY.
2) THIS THEORY IS THE THEORY OF CERTAINTY, THEORY OF EVERY THINGS ETC.
3) THE COMPLETE UNIFIED THEORY IS VERY CLEAR AND EASY THEORY TO UNDERSTAND THE VAST SCIENCE. IT IS POSSIBLE TO DESCRIBE WHOLE SCIENCE WITHOUT USE OF CALCULUS LIKE MATH.
4) IT IS POSSIBLE TO KNOW DIFFERENT FINDINGS FROM PARTICLE TO THE UNIVERSE BY THIS SINGLE THEORY.
(THE CALCULATED RESULTS ARE EXACTLY TALLIED WITH THE FINDINGS OF OTHER TRADITIONAL THEORIES DONE BY THE SCIENTISTS IN THE DIFFERENT FIELDS OF SCIENCE.)
5) THE COMLLETE UNIFIED THEORY CAN EXPLAIN THE INTERNAL MECHANISM OF MATTERS DURING EMISSION OF ENERGY. IT IS NOT POSSIBLE TO KNOW FROM THE TRADITIONAL THEORIES. FOR EXAMPLE, WE DO NOT KNOW THE INTERNAL MEHCANISM OF THE EINSTEIN`S EQUATION E = mc2 THAT, IN WHAT WAY MATTER IS RADIATING ENERGY AS m IS NOT ALONE .
6) THIS THEORY CAN SOLVE THE STRUCTURE OF ELECTRON, ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION, BIRTH OF MAGNETISM, MAXIMUM MASS OF THE UNIVERSE, THE SUCCESSIVE DERIVATIVES OF BIRTH OF STARS, GALAXIES, QUASARS, PARTICLES ETC, THUS THE UNIVERSE.
7) IT DOES NOT AGREE WITH THE DISTASTEFUL CONCEPT OF SCIENCE LIKE ZERO REST MASS OF THE PARTICLES (MASS OF PHOTON, GRAVITION).
8) THE VALUE OF Pi (π) IS NOT CONSTANT AT EXCITED STATE OF MATTER WHEN PARICLE IS DEFORMED ------ BUT THE SCIENTISTS ARE USING THE VALUE OF π AS CONSTANT IN EVERY FIELDS WHERE NEEDED.
9) THE COMPLETE UNIFIED THEORY DO NOT AGREE WITH THE EQUATION OF THEORY OF RELATIVITY OF EINSTEIN OF MASS, AS VELOCITY IS NOT MASS, THAT CAN INCREASE OR DECREASE THE MASS. THE VELOCITY IS ONLY THE ENVONRMENT THAT CAN INCREASE THE MASS BY ACTING MASS TO MASS REACTION.
10) THE COMPLETE UNIFIED THEORY CAN EXPLAIN THE MASS OF CURIE PARTICLE (TILL UNKNOWN) WHICH IS RELATED TO ALL SUBATOMIC PARTICLES EVEN HIGGS BOSON, QUARKS. THIS IS VERY NEW SYSTEM, IN WHAT WAY ALL PARTICLES ARE INTERRELATED.
11) COMPLETE UNIFIED THEORY IS SINGLE THEORY. WE CAN SOLVE ALL TO USE THIS THEORY.
12) THIS THEORY CAN GIVE THE ANSWER THAT WHY BLACK PARTICLE, BLACK HOLE ETC. LOT OF THINGS IS THERE.