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by lerno·7y ago·view on hn ↗
I wonder if it’s not that string theory gets its more reasonable results simply by reducing the singularity of a particle in one dimension.

If we look at the idea of a ”point particle”, it’s clearly something that is never observed elsewhere.

This is what leads to the whole idea of renormalization: that any force that goes to infinity as r->0.

For string theory, adding a second dimension to the particle adds density, which avoids the same amount of infinites. Similarly, loop gravity’s ”chunky” timespace also prevents infinites by essentially adding a minimum distance.

I feel both approaches are wrong. The conceptual model of the particle as a dot still lives on in some regard.

With M-theory, string theory moved more to something like the concept of a particle with density in multiple dimensions.

However, the extreme complexity and the many assumptions needed in string theory made it very unappealing to me.

I would like to see some theory that used the wave nature of particles resolve the infinities - including quantum gravity, then describe some mechanism how these waves could gain dual particle-like behaviour when leaving the Planck length world.