GR predicts Strings?

[Arch2008]

Hello, I’m obviously not a scientist, but has anyone considered that a Kerr ring singularity might basically be a closed string?

-I mean it spins in one direction only and is incredibly flat and thin (one dimensional).

-Its size is on the order of Planck’s length, like a string.

-Its spinning surface is wriggling quantum foam and a string’s surface vibrates.

-A closed string vibrates to represent nuclear particles and the higher the frequency the more mass the particle has. Since they are one dimensional, if a google strings were crushed onto each other by gravity, then they would still look like one closed string (or ring singularity). However, the frequency of the vibration would multiply and become infinitely high, thus representing a particle of incredible mass, like a singularity.

-We already know that gravity can implode a star into neutrons (and perhaps even quarks), so why not even smaller basic structures?

Perhaps it is simply an amazing coincidence that the smallest building block in nature and the most massive natural structure are conceptually alike. It just seems to me that string theorists might like to know that General Relativity actually predicts string-like structures.

[Arch2008]

Well this isn’t exactly the response I had hoped for. I’ve posted this elsewhere and e-mailed it around. John H. Schwarz e-mailed me that it wouldn’t surprise him if this wasn’t true, and I got an e-mail from someone at NASA who said that this is just too hard to prove, currently. However, here is a link to a Russian paper from thirteen years ago:

http://www.mindspring.com/~cerebroscopic/Burinskii.html

and another from 2000:

http://journals.tubitak.gov.tr/physics/issues/fiz-00-24-3/fiz-24-3-10-0004-12.pdf

 

Specifically:

“In particular, A.Sen has obtained a generalization of the Kerr solution to low energy string theory [6]. It was shown [7] that the fields near the Kerr singular ring in this solution are very similar to the fields around fundamental heterotic string theory.”

 

The reason I was interested in this is simple. If General Relativity, which is not exactly a “soft science”, predicts strings, or at least string like structures, then all of this “Not even wrong” crap from Smolin and Woit about string theory can come to a screeching halt.

 

http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/10/02/061002crat_atlarge

[Arch2008]

Here are the solutions by Ashoke Sen:

http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/hep-th/pdf/9411/9411187v3.pdf

[ajb]

Are saying that there are solutions to the vacuum field equations with string-like structures? If so, ok I believe you as like you point out a Kerr singularity would be such a structure. (Not sure if how "physical" they are as questions of the stability of such structures is in question).

 

Another situation are cosmic strings. You need other fields for this, but again we have string structures.

 

Now, what is true and important is that string theory contains general relativity as a low energy effective theory. So, string theory predicts general relativity. I am comfortable with that, but one question could be "is the only completion of general relativity string theory? "

 

As for Woit and Smolin, there are plenty of reasons that they are wrong. But what may be true is that string theory is not the correct way to quantise gravity or create a unification scheme. Despite that there are plenty of good reasons to still work on string theories.

 

I also think that this post should be moved to the physics section. There are some interesting similarities between black-holes and string states. I am no expert on this, but would enjoy being "prompted" to find out more!

Edited June 30, 2008 by ajb

[Arch2008]

Thanks for your reply.

Scientists at NASA imaged material in an acretion disk falling into a black hole and determined that it could only be a spinning singularity. I'm just a laydude, but I figure that observation trumps theory. Thus, Kerr Ring Singularities are stable enough to exist. I posted here because this is speculation, although Sen's paper helps. I'm just glad they didn't move it to the trash can.