Dear Fr. Ivo, The Big bang theory which you are discussing is somewhat old. The Modern day version which most Physicists are discussing today is called the M - Theory Apart from the fact that instead of one there are five different, healthy theories of strings (three superstrings and two heterotic strings) there was another difficulty in studying these theories: we did not have tools to explore the theory over all possible values of the parameters in the theory. Each theory was like a large planet of which we only knew a small island somewhere on the planet. But over the last four years, techniques were developed to explore the theories more thoroughly, in other words, to travel around the seas in each of those planets and find new islands. And only then it was realized that those five string theories are actually islands on the same planet, not different ones! Thus there is an underlying theory of which all string theories are only different aspects. This was called M-theory. The M might stand for Mother of all theories or Mystery, because the planet we call M-theory is still largely unexplored. In 1995, Edward Witten initiated what has been called the Second Superstring Revolution by introducing M-theory to the world. This theory combines the 5 different string theories (along with a previously abandoned attempt to unify General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics called (eleven-dimensional) Supergravity) into one theory. This is accomplished by knitting together a web of relationships between each of the theories called dualities (specifically, S-duality, T-duality, and U-duality). Each of these dualities provides a way of converting one of the string theories into another.
T-duality is probably the most easily explained of the dualities. It has to do with the size, denoted by R, of the curled up dimensions of the string theories. It was discovered that if you take a Type IIA string theory that has a size R and change the radius to 1/R then you will end up getting what is equivalent to a Type IIB theory of size R. This duality, along with the others, creates connections between all 5 (or 6, if you count supergravity) theories. Factually, these dualities existence had been known before Witten had come up with the idea of M-theory. What Witten actually did was to predict that the fact that all these different theories were connected was a result of there being some underlying theory to which they were all approximations. Additionally, it was found that the equations that required string theory to exist in 10 dimensions were actually approximations as well. The proposed M-theory would instead be a theory that took place in 11 dimensions. This theory is somewhat nebulous in nature and has not been pinned down. What "M" may stand for Additional amusement has come for many in guessing what the deliberately ambiguous letter "M" might stand for. Possibilities include Matrix theory, Muffin theory, Mystery theory, Magic theory, Maker theory, Murky theory, Membrane theory, Monstrous theory, and Mother theory. Sheldon Glashow believes that "M" is an upside-down "W" for Witten. Regardless of what the M might possibly mean, M-theory has become one of the most interesting and active areas of research in theoretical physics today There is still a third possibility for the M in M-theory. One of the islands that was found on the M-theory planet corresponds to a theory that lives not in 10 but in 11 dimensions. This seems to be telling us that M-theory should be viewed as an 11 dimensional theory that looks 10 dimensional at some points in its space of parameters. Such a theory could have as a fundamental object a Membrane, as opposed to a string. Like a drinking straw seen at a distance, the membranes would look like strings when we curl the 11th dimension into a small circle. This in modern day Theology makes sense as what is being discovered is that there are eleven dimensions where we coexist!There is a possibility that we may not exist in one of the eleven dimensions! If we can coexist in different dimensions then the whole discussions of the Holy Ghost makes sense especially today being the Feast of Pentecost where we are guided by the Holy Spirit. From which dimension? But we need faith to believe. AT the end of the day it's a personal choice if one wants to believe or not! No one can force anyone to believe! Kind Regards Dr. Joaquim De Souza -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Fr. Ivo Da C. Souza Sent: Sunday, May 15, 2005 9:10 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [Goanet]Re: Darwin on trial Dear Gabe, *--There is no conflict between Theories of Evolution and the dogma of Creation. The dogma of Creation is not scientific hypothesis, but a theological statement. We have studied both. There is no problem for us neither for Faith nor for Reason. Abbe Georges Lemaitre (1894-1966), a Belgian astronomer, proposed in 1931 the theory of explosion, later on called "Big Bang Theory", namely that the Universe was "created" by a massive explosion. This xpansion was started by Something/Someone. The Universe started with one simple particle, the "space particle". When radioactive elements mixed with the particle, they started a chain reaction that forced the immediate and rapid expansion of the Universe and also "created" life. Furthermore, as repulsion forces came into effect, expansion became dominant, and from that time (about 9 billion years ago), galaxies began to separate. The important point in his theory is the assumption that Something actually started it. It was this assumption that gave birth to the "Big Bang" Theory. Ivo da C.Souza
