| Themes > Science > Physics > Elementary particle physics > Elementary particle physics Today > String Theory and the Unification of Forces > Unified Theories |
A unified theory would be a mathematical framework in which all the different kinds of forces and particles occur naturally. We should not have to fix the masses and charges of particles from experiment; rather the theory should fix them automatically to be the right values. Why does the electron weigh as much as it does? Why do particles interact with a given strength and not any other? In the standard model we just assume that these values are the ones measured in experiments, but in a unified theory these values should be predicted. Clearly this is an ambitious goal. This suggests that the theory should possess a great degree of mathematical elegance and consistency. To discover the unified theory, we must look among those physical models which broadly resemble nature and in addition satisfy the above criteria. Only at a later stage -- after the detailed structure of the theory is understood -- can we check whether it describes our world. |
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