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At its most
fundamental level, research in theoretical high energy physics means research
about the nature of mass and energy, and ultimately about the structure
of space and time. It may even be argued that the whole history of physics,
to a large extent, represents the history of the ever changing notion
of space and time in response to our ability to probe infinitesimally
small distance scales as well as larger and larger cosmological distances.
The "flow chart"
in Fig. 1 summarizes the dialectic process which has led, through nearly
twenty five hundred years of philosophical speculation and scientific
inquiry, to the current theoretical efforts in search of a supersynthesis
of the two conflicting paradigms of 20th century physics, namely, the
Theory of General Relativity and Quantum Theory. In that Hegelian perspective
of the history of physics, such a supersynthesis is regarded by many as
the "holy grail" of contemporary high energy physics. However,
the story of the many efforts towards the formulation of that synthesis,
from supergravity to superbranes, constitutes, in itself, a fascinating
page in the history of theoretical physics at the threshold of the new
millennium.
From: "Loop Quantum Mechanics and the Fractal Structure
of Quantum Spacetime"
S. Ansoldi, A. Aurilia and E. Spallucci, Chaos, Solitons & Fractals,
Vol. 10, pp 197-212, 1999
