Math Seminars.
Michael Duff (UM Physics Department)
A Layman's Guide to M-Theory
Superunification of the fundamental interactions underwent a major
paradigm
shift in 1984 when eleven-dimensional supergravity was knocked off its
pedestal
by ten-dimensional superstrings. 1995 witnessed another shift of equal
proportions, however, when superstrings were themselves superseded by
``M-theory'', a non-perturbative theory which describes extended objects with
two dimensions (supermembranes) and five dimensions (superfivebranes), which
subsumes all five consistent string theories and whose low-energy limit is,
ironically, eleven-dimensional supergravity.