A Correction to Einstein Hints At Evidence for String Theory | Quanta Magazine
Recently, three physicists calculated a number pertaining to the quantum nature of gravity. When they saw the value, we couldn t believe it, said Pedro Vieira, one of the three.
Gravity s quantum-scale details are not something physicists usually know how to quantify, but the trio attacked the problem using an approach that has lately been racking up stunners in other areas of physics. It s called the bootstrap.
To bootstrap is to deduce new facts about the world by figuring out what s compatible with known facts science s version of picking yourself up by your own bootstraps. With this method, the trio found a surprising coincidence: Their bootstrapped number closely matched the prediction for the number made by string theory. The leading candidate for the fundamental theory of gravity and everything else, string theory holds that all elementary particles are, close-up, vibrating loops and strings.
It’s not 47, is it?