cosmology, string theory

the cosmos works by harmony and tensions like the lyre and bow (Heraklitus c. 500 BCE)

that which was the loveliest in design and the largest and shone like a star ος καλλιστος εην ποικιλμασιν ηδε μεγιστος αστήρ δ' ως απελαμπεν εκειτο δε νείατος αλλων (Iliad VI 294)

seeing listening and straighten the verdicts with Justice ... I will proclaim truths ... let us decide our quarrel right here with straight judgements which come from Zeus (Works and Days 5-30)

shuddered the skin blew wrath from sleep a cry in night's obscure watches a voice of fear deep in the house ... in women's inner chamber ... dead men held a grudge still (Choeforoi 32-40)

saw Antiope ... the beautiful Epikaste Oidipodes' mother ... knotting a noose and hanging ... high ceiling ... but left to him ... all the sorrows that are brought to pass by a mother's furies (Odyssey XI 260-279)

for one who handles the bridal close there is no cure all the world's waters running in a single drift may try to wash blood from the hand of the stained man ... new blood guilt on (Choeforoi 71-75)

Εσπερα παντα Evening Star always bringing back the shining Dawn ... the sheep ... child to its mother ... esperon of all the most beautiful καλλιστος (Psappho fr 104A-B)

Εσπερα παντα φερων οσα φαινολις εσκεδασ' αυως φερεις οιν φεριες αιγα φερεις απυ ματερι παιδα (104a) of all the stars the most beautiful (104b) αστερων ο καλλιστος ... is Sappho's (Himerius 315-386 AD)

like that star which comes on in the autumn ... outshines the stars that are numbered in the night's darkening ... Orion's Dog ... κακον evil sign σημα ... unfortunate mortals (Iliad XXII 26-31)

but Justice with her scales watches over so sudden disasters wait to strike in brightness in gloom while others between light and darkness and others ... pitch black darkness (Choeforoi 61-65)

blood when it is drunk up by the nurturing earth congeals the vengeful gore ... caked and hard it will not drain through the deep-run ruin ... man of guilt ... infection boils within (Choeforoi 66-70)

but the circle cuts the Lion beneath the breast and belly lengthwise to the loins ... eyes on either side of the Belt ... but there is another circle to match in the South (Aratus PHAENOMENA 493-503)

grieved in her heart 'children of mine and of a wicked father obey me if you wish we would avenge your father's evil outrage for he was the first to devise hateful εργα deed' (Τheogonia 164-67)

Night Νυξ δ'ετεκε bore loathsome Doom and black Fate and θανατον Death and she bore Sleep ... Blame and painful Distress ... Hesperides ... Destinies (Theogonia 211-14)

pitiless punishing Fates ... give to mortals when they are born both good and evil ... goddesses never cease from their terrible wrath ... punishment to whoever commits a crime (Theogonia 215-21)

hated by their own father from the beginning and as soon as any of them was born Ouranos put them all away out of sight in a hiding place in Earth ... rejoiced in his evil deed (Theogonia 155-59)

Earth rejoiced greatly in her breast ... put into his hands καρχαρόδοντα shark-toothed ... reaped the genitals from his dear father and threw behind ... later time vengeance for this (Theogonia 173-210)

and Theano of the fair cheeks taking up the robe laid it along the knees of Athene the lovely haired and praying she supplicated the daughter of powerful Zeus (Iliad VI 302-11)

provided that the public recitations of Homer shall follow in fixed order ...ραψωδεισθαι the second reciter must begin from the place where the first left off (D Laertus 57-Solon)

shining ... glittered ... in her fullness and on all the constellations that festoon the heavens the Pleiades and the Hyades and the strength of Orion (Iliad VIII 479-86)

promised full restitution in a public statement but the other refused ... arbitrator ... took turns speaking their cases ... Hate was there with Confusion ... Death the destructive (Iliad XVIII 501-36)

Oh hail blaze of darkness a message of light bright as day and processionals and dance and choirs of multitudes in Argos for this day of grace (Agamemnon 21-24)

it lay beneath the others ... women hastened about her ... to Athene's temple on the peak of the citadel ... with a wailing cry all lifted their hands to Athene (Iliad VI 295-301)

'grant that the man be hurled on his face ... have pity ... wives and their innocent νήπια children ευχομένη' so she spoke in prayer but Pallas Athene turned her head from her (Iliad VI 306-12)

if what you say is true ... sit down in silence and do as I tell you for fear all the gods as many as are on Olympos can do nothing if I come close and lay my unconquerable hands upon you (Iliad 364-67)

Homeridai stitched sewn together the many songs αοιδοί most often begin with a prelude to Zeus ... in the sacred games at the much-hymned sanctuary of Nemean Zeus (Pindar c. 518-438 BCE)

Pisistratus's son Hipparchus ... eldest and wisest ... first brought the poems of Homer into this country and compelled the rhapsodes at the Panathenaea to recite them in relay one following another (Hipparchus 228b)

copied and compiled them in order ... epics already had a certain faint reputation among the Greeks ... but Lycurgus was the very first to make them known (Plutarch Lives: Lycurgus IV 4)

through deadly strife became separated each from the other and of how the stars and moon and paths of the sun always keep their fixed place in the sky (Apollonius Rhodius first half of 3rd c. BCE)

of valorous Amphidamατος... many prizes and there I declared I gained a victory with a hymn and carried off a tripod ... Muses taught me to sing an inconceivable hymn (Works and Days 654-62)

as a star moves among stars in the night's darkening Hesper ... fairest καλλιστος ... was the shining from the pointed spear ... his right hand with evil intention (Iliad XXII 317-19) καλλιστος (Psappho 104b)

Bear ... the name of the Wagon ... turns about in a fixed place ... looks at Orion and she alone is never plunged in the wash of the Ocean ... a quarrel had risen ... two ... blood price (Iliad XVIII 487-99)

unwilling to watch ... left the place where she had been set as a star ... had previously been ... became ... story is found in the Cylic poets (Scholiast on the Iliad "the Pleiades")

woven in design Ουρανος ... the stars αστρ' ... brightness Εσπερον Evening Star Night black-robed ... Pleiades and Orion his sword in hand moved through the sky's mid-path (Ion 1146-49)

nor does Hagesichorus of the beautiful ankles remain in place to Agido ... accept to the gods belong the fullment and the end (Alcman fragment 1 PMGF 7th c. BCE)

And nigh at hand, only a very little above, Swim the delicate sisters the Pleiades ... those burial clouds that lower victorious soon to devour all, Watching, silently weeps. (On the Beach at Night)

realized ... in his anger he had forced her to this act ... she had done unwittingly the will of the beast ... sobs ... groaned that he had struck her thoughtlessly ... cruel (The Women of Trachis 933-35)

what can wash off the blood once spilled upon the ground? hearth soaked in sorrow wreckage of a fallen house ... and where men fear to walk the mists huddle upon this house (Agamemnon 48-52)

and deep within goes the stroke of the dripping fang as mortal pain at the trebled song of your agony shivers the heart to hear (Agamemnon 1162-66)

interact by joining and splitting the quantum frenzy ... string/antistring pair to erupt and annihilate yielding a more complicated interaction ... sequences of string/antistrings (theoretical physicist B Greene)

the simple replacement of point particles with strands of string as the fundamental ingredients of everything ... appears to resolve the conflict between general relativity and quantum mechanics

the spatially extended nature of a string is the crucial new element allowing for a single harmonious framework incorporating both theories string theory provides a truly unified theory

since all matter and all forces are proposed to arise from one basic ingredient: oscillating strings ... string theory once again radically changes our understanding of spacetime

"stuff" of all matter and all forces is the same each elementary particle is composed of a single string and all strings are absolutely identical ... the universe ... vibrating strings ... cosmic symphony (theoretical physicist B Greene)

every particle of matter and every transmitter of force consists of a string whose pattern of vibration is its "fingerprint" ... a single all inclusive unified description of the physical universe a theory of everything

Deadly Night gave birth to Nέμεσιν Nemesis a woe for mortal human beings and after she bore Deceit and Fondness ...bore hard-hearted Strife (Theogonia 223-25)

Strife born painful Toll ... Hunger and tearful Pains ... Battles and Murders and Slaughters and Strife and Lies ... Oath who brings woe upon humans ... willfully swears a false oath (Theogony 226-32)

a hollow donut that is a torus although they are beyond our ability to draw more complicated possibilities can be imagined ... of extra spatial dimensions curled up (The Elegant Universe)

parts of a larger expanding grouping x electrical tape cardboard ink and graphite on paper 1996 - present

virgin who has sounded forth to no avail ...I who most of all to the Dawn Goddess ... our ordeals to please Aotis she is the healer of our πονων pain ... delightful peace ... the swan (Alcman 7th c. BCE)

a prelude to the song itself which must be learned? for surely it's not your opinion that the men who are clever at these things are dialecticians (Politeia 531c-d) india ink graphite on paper 18x24"

I don't want babies blind and premature like the proverbial bitch from showing too much haste ... then took the girl and laying her down in the flowers ... I covered her

my arm cradled her neck while she in fear like a fawn gave up ... touched her breasts ... her dress ... lovely form I shot my hot energy off just brushing ... hairs (Archilochus 680-c.645 BCE fr 196a)

for the death of a slave ... an easy victim ... one stroke of a wet sponge wipes their image out and that is by far the most unhappy thing of all ... σπογγος (Agamemnon 1327-30)

shining by night wandering darkly bright around the earth νυκτιρες περι γαιαν αλωμενον αλλοτριον φως (Parmenides 5th c. BCE) india ink graphite on paper cardboard clear tape

weep no, child, weep not, my darling with these kisses let me remove your tears ... be patient, watch again another night, the Pleiades shall emerge, they are immortal (On the Beach)

The ravening clouds shall not long be victorious, They shall not long possess the sky, they devour the stars only in apparition, (On the Beach At Night)

unlike an ordinary piece of string, which is itself composed of molecules and atoms, the strings of string theory are purported to lie deep within the heart of matter

consists of a tiny one-dimensional loop ... vibrating, oscillating, dancing filament ... string ... string theory adds the new microscopic layers of a vibrating loop ... progression from atoms, neutrons (theoretical physicist B Greene)

according to string theory, the elementary ingredients of the universe are not point particles ... they are like tiny, one-dimensional filaments ... like infinitely thin rubber bands, vibrating to and fro (theoretical physicist B Greene)

possessed of god mazed at heart to sing your own death song the wild lyric ... Itys ... and over ... her long life of tears weeping forever grieves the brown nightingale (Agamemnon 1139-45)

these decorations in heaven must be used as patterns for the sake of learning ... diagrams exceptionally carefully drawn and worked out by Daedalus or some other craftsman or painter (Politeia 529d)

part of a larger expanding (45 degree angle x) grouping x white pen and colored pencil on paper 2006 -

part of a larger expanding grouping (45 degree angle x) white pen and colored pencil on paper 2006 -

compare to spacetime Penrose diagram ... at infinity ... analytically extended Schwarzschild black hole ... light rays move ... upward vertical points (jilt. Colorado.edu)

part of a larger expanding grouping (45 degree angle x) white pen and colored pencil on paper 2006 -

part of a larger expanding grouping (45 degree angle x) white pen and colored pencil 2006 -

part of a larger expanding grouping (45 degree angle x) white pen and colored pencil on paper 2006 -

white pen and pencil on paper 2006 - present

part of a larger expanding grouping (45 degree angle x) white pen and colored pencil on paper 2006 -

pen and colored pencil on paper 2006 - present

pen and pencil on paper 2006 - present

pen and pencil on paper

let words such as these drip deep in your ears ... what is to come yourself burn to know ... we gather into murmurous revolt hear us ... be with us against those we hate (Choeforoi 451-60)

the day of doom has waited long they call for it it may come ... the blood-dripping stroke and grinding cry of disaster ... sickness that fights all remedy (Choeforoi 463-70)

a pair of such triangles are joined along the line of the hypotenuse ... short sides together ... equilateral triangles are combined ... first solid figure (Timaeus 54d-55a) india ink on paper 18 x 24"

Justice so moves that those only learn who suffer and the future you shall know when it has come before then forget it it is grief too soon given all will come clear (Agamemnon 250-54)

... was terrible you will learn everything ... went into the house ... hid herself ... would call out her fate and to her house that she would have no children ... cut ... knife (The Women of Trachis 899-931)

these things according to Eudemus and his followers are ancient and discoveries of the Muse of the Pythagoreans (435 Proclus in Euclidem)

the gates of the paths of Night and Day a stone threshold enclose them high in the air are blocked with great doors avenging δικη Justice holds the alternate bolts (Parmenides fr 288)

the bolted door and gates ... flew open swinging in their sockets ... goddess greeted ... took my right hand in hers ... 'learn ... opinions of mortals ... no true reliance' (Parmenides of Elea 5th c. BCE)

rise stricken head from the dust lift up the throat ... must I be silenced? ... earth's stiff bed ... tears' song where the stricken find music yet in the song undanced of their wretchedness (TW 98-121)

sickness that fights all remedy in the house there lies the cure for this not to be brought from outside from others but in themselves through the fierce wreck and bloodshed (Choeforoi 470-74)

this follows the run of your song is it cruel force of weight some divinity knelling upon you brings the death song of passionate suffering? I can see no end (Agamemnon 1273-77)

the triangles ... formed by equal sides is to its nature more stable than that formed by unequal sides ... more stable base than the equilateral triangle (Timaeus 55e-56) ink on paper 18 x 24"

the theory proposes that they are ultramicroscopic ingredients making up the particles out of which atoms themselves are made the strings of string theory are so small

on average they are about as long as the Planck length that they appear point like even when examined with the most powerful equipment (theoretical physicist B Greene)

strings could be made up of yet smaller structures ... may have further substructure ... strings to be nature's most fundamental ingredient (india ink white acrylic paint on watercolor paper)

and you must see my death ... squalling with fright ... gaping hole where the breath of life goes out and sinks downward ... with the unconsolable dead ... you I pity mother (Εκαbe 204-12)

gods ran together in strife ... winds ... shuddering ... shafts of great Zeus ... they brought shouting and screaming into the middle of both sides ... terrifying ... deed of supremacy (Theogonia 705-10)

his massive hand ... Chasm ... look upon it with eyes and to hear its sound with ears ... as she was pressed down and as he pressed her down from on high (Theogonia 692-705)

has taken the form of a pyramid shall be the element and seed of fire the second ... air ... third water ... so small that none of them ... are seen by us (Timaeus 56b-c) ink on paper 18 x 24"

gained victory over them with their hands ... falling down ... great chasm whose bottom one would not reach in a ... it is terrible for the immortal gods as well (Theogonia 734-42)

the earth breeds dangers ... swarm with bitter savage beasts torches blossom to burn along ... space between ground and sky things fly ... walk the earth ... wrath of the whirlwind (Choeforoi 385-93)

particles like photons weak gauge bosons are yet other resonant patterns of string vibration ... one matches perfectly the properties of the graviton ensuring that gravity is an integral part of string theory

according to string theory, the observed properties of each elementary particle arise because its internal string undergoes a particular resonant vibrational pattern

the electric charge, the weak charge, and the string charge carried by a particular string are determined by the precise way it vibrates. Moreover exactly the same idea holds for the messenger particles themselves (B Greene)

these orbits lie like rings ... on all are set beacon lights many in number ... the circles are immovable and fitted each to other but in size two are matched with two (PHAENOMENA 463-68)

of the lesser circles ... it crosses Andromeda's right arm above the elbow ... the head and the neck of the Bird ... wheel along this circle in their course ... touch the Belt (PHAENOMENA 478-58))

this circle is called the Belt of the Zodiac ... half this Belt is set below the hollow of the horizon and half is above the earth from the fall of the night (Aratus c.315 BC/310 BC-240)

and here take this veil, it is immortal and fasten it, there is no need to die, nor suffer (Odyssey V 345)

we know how to say many false things to genuine ones but we know when we wish how to proclaim true things ψευδεα πολλα ... αληθεα (Works and Days 26-28)

if Homer were really able to educate human beings and make them better because he is in these things capable not of imitating but of knowing ... if he were able to help human beings toward virtue (Politeia 600c-d)

so one generation ... will grow while another dies φύλλα τά μέν τ' ανεμος χαμάδες χέει αλλα δε' θ' υλη τηλεθόωσα φύει εαρος δ' επιγίγνεται ωρη ως ανδρων γενεή (Iliad VI 147-49)

who are as leaves are and now flourish and grow warm with life and feed on what the ground gives but then again fade away and are dead (Iliad XXI 464-66)

is roughly a Planck length in size ... on such scales there are still undulations in the spatial fabric ... quantum jitters but are mild enough to avoid irreparable conflict with general relativity

string theory limits how violent the jitters of the gravitational field become and the limit is just big enough to avoid the catastrophic clash between quantum mechanics and general relativity (B Greene)

not a point particle - dot of no size - but instead is an object that has spatial extent and this difference is the key to string theory's success in merging gravity and quantum mechanics

women their mourning ... a law which did away with disorder ... laceration of the flesh by mourners, ... use of set lamentations, and the bewailing .of anyone ... he forbade (Plutarch Lives: Solon 640-560 BCE)

gathering all the weapons ... armed those women ... where she knew the enemy would attack ... priestess at Delphi had foretold ... Herodotus quoted (Pausanias 2nd c. AD) white black electrical tape ink graphite on black paper

however, it is possible that such a super-heavy vibrational string state-a relic from the big bang-did survive to the present ... a monumental discovery to say the least (B Greene, physicist)

gathering all the weapons ... armed those women ... where she knew the enemy would attack ... priestess at Adelphi had foretold ... Herodotus quoted (Pausanias died c. 470 BCE)

child of my own unhappy child shall your life be torn from your mother and from me? ... tear face beat bosom ... what have we left to suffer? ... hurled down the whole length of disaster (TW 790-97)

she brushed it away as lightly as when a mother brushes a fly away from her child who is lying in deep sleep steering herself the arrow's course straight ... a cloud of dark blood (Iliad IV 130-140)

epigram runs as follows: 'when Pythagoras discovered the famous figure the one account of which he made his renowned sacrifice of oxen' (434 Diogenes Laertius VIII, 12)

who are you? who will not let me lie? who disturbs my wretchedness? why? have the Greeks decreed my death? ... I cannot die? you came to tell me this? my poor child torn from my arms dead (Eκαβη 500-16)

... I too claim to be of your race ... have paid the penalty for unjust deeds ... Fate conquered me ... a suppliant now I come to Persephone that she may be kind and send me to the seats of the pure (from Thurii for a woman)

changeless ... it exists without beginning or ceasing since coming to be and perishing have wandered very far away ... fixed ... for strong Necessity holds it within ... keeps it in on every side (Parmenides fr 298)

..... the image slipping from the arm's embrace not to return again on wings drifting down the ways of sleep sorrows been in the house by the hearthside (Agamemnon 420-27)

.... 'mother why will you not wait for me' 'my child ill-fated beyond all other mortals ... spirit has left the white bones ... strive back toward the light ... tell' 'saw Tyro' (Odyssey XI 210-35)

... reasoning to my speech to free the slandered woman ... to demonstrate that those who blame her are lying ... he performed terrible acts she suffered them ... hate him (Yoryias 483-375 BCE)

it isn't holy to betray what seems to be the truth ... especially ... the medium of Homer ... isn't it just ... come back this way ... an apology in lyrics ... meter ... we shall listen benevolently (Politeia 607c-d)

cries high and shrill ... men behind her hitting her with their ... on the back and shoulders force her up ... into slavery ... hard work ... sorrow ... cheeks pitiful weeping (Odyssey VIII 525-30)

likenesses which are apprehended by the eye ... judge of the rightness of the artist's work? ... true and natural ... and real situations ... decide ... what the creature depicted was? (Laws 668e)

... fall of the dice ... reason declares to accustom the soul ... raising up what has fallen ιατρικη θρηνωδίαν threnody αφανιζοντα: unseen vanish hide remove destroy annihilate (Politeia 604d) (Oxford Dictionary)

against Cleomenes for possession of Argos ... Telesilla the poetess who urged the women to fight ... took up arms ... they beat back Cleomenes ... drove out the other king Demaratus (Plutarch c.120 AD)