Black Holes Provide More Evidence for Strings

Black Holes Provide More Evidence for Strings

Arguably the most hotly debated theory in physics is string theory, the concept that at the core of every fundamental particle resides a tiny string or loop of energy that vibrates in nine different dimensions of space.

The significance of string theory is that if it or some other multi-space-dimensional theory of physics accurately describes physical reality, then religions that insist on a doctrinal construct of God and his dealings with humanity demanding no more than the equivalent of the dimensions of length, width, height, and time must be wrong while religions like Christianity whose entire doctrinal system fundamentally requires the equivalent of many extra dimensions could be correct. Because Christianity among the world’s religions remains alone in its appeal to the equivalent of many extra dimensions and since humans can only visualize phenomena within the dimensions that they personally experience, the “could be correct” transforms into “the Bible’s words must be uniquely and inerrantly inspired by the One who created the universe.”

Any theory as loaded with theological implications as string theory is bound to be controversial. Such controversy should not be interpreted as implying that the theory is lacking in evidence. However, the greater the controversy, the more the need for evidence to overcome doubts about the theory. In that context, it is welcome news that theoretical physicists have demonstrated a seventh confirmation of string theory(http:www.nature.com/nature/journal/v448/n7157/index.html) {doi:10.1038/4481000a}1 to complement the six that already exist.2

This seventh confirmation comes from a team of theoretical physicists exploiting a facet of string theory to explain what previously had been mystifying aspects of the Nernst effect (the crosswise flow of heat and charge currents in the presence of a magnetic field) in high-temperature superconductors. Specifically, they demonstrate how the physics of a black hole in negatively curved spacetime that includes an extra dimension of space produces a set of transport equations directly from quantum mechanics field theory that predict certain features of the Nernst effect.

String theory was invented to explain how gravity, general relativity, and quantum mechanics could coexist. However, until now, this coexistence could only be outlined in the broadest terms o used tor explain details that could not be directly observed. By predicting from string theory an effect that can be observed in the world in which we presently live theoretical physicists have provided additional evidence that string theory indeed is the pathway to unify all of physics. Such additional evidence translates into more evidence for the extra- and/or trans-dimensional doctrines that are unique to the Bible among the world’s great holy books.

Endnotes
  1. Sean A. Hartnell, “Theory of the Nernst Effect Near Quantum Phase Transitions in Condensed Matter, and in Dyonic Black Holes,” preprint, version 3, July 16, 2007 available at https://arxiv.org/abs/0706.3215; Jan Zaanen, “A Black Hole Full of Answers,” Nature 448 (August 30, 2007): 1000-1001.

  2. Hugh Ross, Beyond the Cosmos, second edition (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 1999):XX-XX.