| Themes > Science > Physics > Elementary particle physics > Elementary particle physics Today > String Theory and the Unification of Forces > Shortcomings of the Standard Model |
Despite all this, today it is believed that the Standard Model is approximate and incomplete. It does not incorporate the fourth and perhaps best-known force in nature: gravity. This is believed to be mediated by the exchange of gravitons, and due to problems of mathematical consistency, no one has ever been able to incorporate gravity into the Standard Model. So it is surely incomplete. Another problem with this model is that one has to assume the existence of distinct forces and their carriers. Einstein hoped that there would be a ``unified'' theory in which all known forces would emerge out of a single one in some way. Electricity and magnetism used to be thought of as two forces, but now we know they are different aspects of the same (electro-magnetic) force. Could the same type of unification hold for the four forces that are today viewed as distinct? |
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