Matti Pitkänen (matpitka@pcu.helsinki.fi)
Mon, 29 Nov 1999 05:17:44 +0200
Dear Hitoshi,
[Hitoshi]
> Thank you for the introduction of the book. I agree and am pleased to know
that
> string theory ended. I believe Mathematics cannot play any essential role.
> Something like M-theories will end sooner or later. I agree that Witten
etc. are
> just "playing" with formulae and I do not expect that they will turn their
> talents(?) to actual problems of physics, they are mere mathematicians, I
think.
>
Even the reviewer of "Elegant universe", former string model enthusiasist,
had
the opinion that M-theory is just last desperate attempt too cook up
something.
But Witten IS great mathematician, this one must admit. He has applied
quantum physics
intuition to create new mathematics. Knot theory, topolical invariants
for 3-manifolds and things like this. I
If Witten and the like would take experimental physics and were more
anomaly
oriented they would be doing new physics. That this is not the case
is perhaps partly due to recent education of theoreticians. They learn
nothing about
experimental side and about how experimentalist thinks. They do not have
eye
for anomalies, which are God's gifts for theoretician. The experimenal
absence of
magnetic monopoles, proton stability, solar neutrino deficit and
anticorrelation of
neutrino flux with solar spot activity: here are three (not all) anomalies
which challenge
the accepted gauge theory picture of basic interactions which string
modellers take
as granted.
-Matti
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