JustCurious?! Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 This is a purely imaginative question while I am reading Hawking's books. I am wondering about the whole light being a wave and particle at the same time and string theory; is light like a string through space-time so that in one point of view, light is a particle (cross-section of a string) but light is also a wave (like waves produced on a string)? So just as in the two-slit experiment that showed destructive interference and constructive interference, does this happen to light in the scale of the universe? I am trying to imagine light in the view of string theory with world-sheets having a wave-like properties and ripple effects with destructive and constructive interference. If other particles have wave-particle properties as stated in his book, do they also undergo destructive and constructive interference? Or maybe I just have an overactive imagination lol 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajb Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 In 4d particle sweep out world lines, which are one dimensional objects. That is close to what you are thinking of. If other particles have wave-particle properties as stated in his book, do they also undergo destructive and constructive interference?In essence yes, all particles can be described as waves and thus particles wave-like properties. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustCurious?! Posted March 20, 2013 Author Share Posted March 20, 2013 Thanks for the clarification. So a particle in 4D creates world-lines which I assume also have wave properities? So do world-lines interact with each other causing constructive and destructive interference? If that is true, then would that mean that particles can disrupt other particles' time (ie cancel the particle's time-point)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swansont Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 Thanks for the clarification. So a particle in 4D creates world-lines which I assume also have wave properities? So do world-lines interact with each other causing constructive and destructive interference? If that is true, then would that mean that particles can disrupt other particles' time (ie cancel the particle's time-point)? Canceling/disrupting time is nonsensical. The wave here is the deBroglie wave, given by h/p (Planck's constant/momentum). I'm not aware of any model that says world lines have wave properties; world lines are a representation of a trajectory, which is a classical notion and generally goes away when discussing quantum phenomenon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustCurious?! Posted March 20, 2013 Author Share Posted March 20, 2013 Oh okay. I made a bad assumption about the world-line. Thanks for the info Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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