String Theory and Twistor Theory Combined

[Naty1]

Until recently the twistor theory of Roger Penrose on one hand and string theory on another, epitomized by Ed Witten and many others, have been inconsistent.

Twistor space uses 3+1 dimensions and is a complex space in additional dimensions with imaginary components, analogous to the complex number structure of quantum theory. String theory has I guess now 10 +1 real dimensions...although that can vary by theory. Twistors give rise to spin networks which have been discussed in other threads here.

According the a one line comment from Roger Penrose in a video from another thread here, Ed Witten has sent Penrose a 100 page document placing strings in twistor space...unsure when, sounds like in the last year or so.

And apparently some insightful ideas arise...anyone know anything more or have any references for reading??

 

[MTd2]

Are you sure it was last year?

http://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0312171

 

[Naty1]

The reference was in a talk at Penn State June last year by Roger Penrose...honoring Abhay Ashtekar...Penrose made it sound like the correpoondence was a recent event that might restimulate interest in his twistor theory...The website has caused my computer to lock up three times just now , so I'll try again tomorrow.

 

[Naty1]

I forgot to mention in my original post that the second paragraph desription of twistor theory's inconsistency with string theory in my original post is what I believe Roger Penrose said in a video related to another thread...it's his summary of the situation, not a conclusion I drew...Penrose he was of course ebullient that a guy of Witten's stature might "resurrect" the old twistor theory...