The History of String Theory: Debates and Discoveries in the 1960s

[Tom McCurdy]

I was just trying to remember didn't String theory first come up in like 1968 when it was debated whether someone found something from oilers equations that happened to describe the strong and weak force? Or was that when it was making its first comeback... ah I can't remember.

Just trying to figure out how string theory was started.

 

[sol2]

I was just trying to remember didn't String theory first come up in like 1968 when it was debated whether someone found something from oilers equations that happened to describe the strong and weak force? Or was that when it was making its first comeback... ah I can't remember.

Just trying to figure out how string theory was started.

See Gabriele Veneziano (page 136 of Brian Greene's The Elegant Universe) and even Susskind's contribution

 

[wisp]

String theories
Michael Green and John Schwarz continued development of string theory – discovered in 1968 by Gabriele Veneziano and improved on in 1970 by Yoichiro Nambu, Holger Nielsen and Leonard Susskind – and in 1984 they released superstring theory. It suggests that matter is made from incredibly small one-dimensional quantum strings 10^-35 m in length that exist in a 10-dimensional environment – six hidden and four visible to us.
These strings have no mass – like light; they spin, vibrate and rotate, yielding different quantum energy states. Their energy states or harmonics correspond to different fundamental particles within the same family. The extra invisible dimensions can be regarded as mathematical artefacts.
David Gross later added 16 extra dimensions to account for bosons – the transmitters of force. A total of 10 dimensions are needed for fermions, and 26 dimensions are needed for bosons in order to be consistent with quantum theory.
Superstring theory (string theory for short) has incorporated supersymmetry in an attempt to unify the four fundamental forces of nature. But physicists are still a long way from being able to say whether string theory is correct.

 

[selfAdjoint]

I was just trying to remember didn't String theory first come up in like 1968 when it was debated whether someone found something from oilers equations that happened to describe the strong and weak force? Or was that when it was making its first comeback... ah I can't remember.

Just trying to figure out how string theory was started.

There's a good capsule history of string theory at superstringtheory.com. That site is maintained (slowly!) by Patricia Schwartz, who was (is?) married to John Schwartz one of the key figures in the development of string physics.

 

[Tom McCurdy]

thank you for your responses