String Theory unravelling the mystery of the universe

By Dr Vickramabahu Karunaratne

(August 16, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) I got an invitation from the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics( DAMTP) last week, to participate in the 50th anniversary celebrations. My thoughts went back to the days when I was a research student at DAMTP. I joined DAMTP, at the University of Cambridge in 1967. It was a relatively new department, though many distinguished scientists were involved in creating this department. I saw Fred Hoyle in the tea room often, though he was not a member of our department. Sciama and Doughty were much respected figures even at that time. My supervisor was P.C. Clemov, a senior member of the Plasma Physics group. Senarath de Alwis, who was the other Lankan member of the department, reminded me recently that, Stephen Hawking, the reputed physicist was a research student with us at the time. "Hawking was at DAMTP during our time. Of course he was not as disabled as he is now but you may remember him coming into the tea room on crutches" he reminded me.


Senarath, or Shanta as we used to call him, is still working on String theory and he is happy that Hawking has given his attention to this new theory about the universe, or a Theory of Every thing(TOE). There have been many theories proposed by theoretical physicists over the last century, but none had been confirmed experimentally. The primary problem in producing a TOE is that the accepted theories of quantum mechanics and general relativity are hard to combine. Based on theoretical arguments, many physicists believe that the 11-dimensional Matrix String Theory (perturbative string theory) is the complete TOE, although there is no consensus. Still the Matrix String Theory is not a completed theory but rather an approach to producing one. In String Theory the universe is made up of a lots of tiny, vibrating strings.

Buddha’s interpretation

After taking String Theory seriously, Professor Hawking has argued that the universe did not have just one unique beginning and history but a multitude of different ones and that it has experienced them all. His new theory is also attractive because it fits in with the String Theory - the most popular candidate for a "theory of everything." String Theory allows the existence of an unimaginable multitude of different types of universes in addition to our own, but it does not provide a selection criterion among these and hence no explanation for why our universe is, the way it is.

I read both articles on String Theory sent recently by Shanta. Though I cannot say that I understood all, what came to my mind was Buddha's interpretation of fundamental reality. It is usual for Buddhists to take the first truth - dukkha as suffering related to human existence. Then we are told that suffering is due to desire. Two are related by a cause and effect relationship. But taken as an objective universal truth, dukkha means ultimate reality as discontinuity, dissolution or negation. Buddha further explained that this impermanence as anithya, dukkha, anathma. (Change, negation, no soul or lack of essence). Also he explained that uthpatha, thithi, banga (arising, static, collapse) as the nature of this nothingness. Accordingly it is this auto change of nothingness that caused the physical world of four Butha (states); plasma-thejo, gas- vayo, liquid- apo, solid- patavi. Buddha who rejected God, soul and creation appears to have struck something closer to the TOE!

Buddha claimed that humans are capable of understanding ultimate reality. However,the human unconscious attachment to the physical world of existence is an alienation that blocks human ability to comprehend beyond the 3 dimensional empirical reality. This then is the second truth. Control of lingering desire in the unconscious is the method to remove this impediment. Are the physicists struggling withthe String Theory, sufficiently detached from the physical nature to arrive at the end of the String Theory!

-Sri Lanka Guardian