Test and prediction score: 100% correct since 2014.
 

Even the faintest whisper about the unification of physics must stand up to experiment with new tests and new predictions. This page lists those high-precision predictions and tests that were deduced from the strand conjecture, or strand tangle model, by Christoph Schiller. The positive and negative aspects of strands are also evaluated.

At present, every prediction agrees with all experiments. Also every test ever deduced from strands is positive. Summarizing, strands predict that the search for physics beyond the standard model (with massive Dirac neutrinos) and that the search for physics beyond general relativity will be unsuccessful. Strands also predict the lack of trans-Planckian physics.

In addition, strands make about two dozen positive predictions: the value of each particle mass, of each mixing angle and of each coupling constant can be deduced from the strand model.

 
● Predictions about fundamental physics – in four short parts
● Tests with particle experiments – of part 1
● Tests with gravity experiments – of part 2
● Theoretical tests – of parts 3 and 4
● Present limitations and timeline of the predictions
● What speaks against the strand conjecture
● What speaks in favour of the strand conjecture
A money back guarantee for contributors
 

Predictions about fundamental physics – in four short parts

1. No deviation from the standard model of particle physics (with massive Dirac neutrinos and PMNS mixing) will ever be observed. Thus also no exception to the invariant local limits c, and /c. (Part 1, formulated in 1973, agrees with all data.)
 
2. No deviation from general relativity (at sub-galactic distances) will ever be observed. Thus also no exception to the invariant local limits c, c5/4G, c4/4G, c3/4G and c2/4G. (Part 2, formulated in 1915 and simplified c. 2002, agrees with all data.)
 
3. Every observation in elementary particle physics is explained by the fundamental Planck-scale principle of the strand conjecture, i.e., by Dirac's trick at the Planck scale. The assumptions are minimal, clear and unmodifiable. No other, inequivalent approach will achieve this completeness of explanation. (Part 3, formulated c. 2014, agree with all data.)
 
4. Calculating the fundamental constants of the standard model – the mass of the electron and of the other elementary particles, the fine structure constant and the nuclear coupling constants, and all mixing angles and CP phases – is possible with strands. No other, inequivalent approach will achieve this calculation. (Part 4 was formulated c. 2014 - though one other approach, by Tejinder Singh, is also trying hard.)

The research page lists papers and preprints explaining how these rather daring predictions arise. The rest of this page shows how to test and falsify both the predictions and the strand conjecture itself.

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Tests with particle experiments – of part 1:

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Tests with gravity experiments – of part 2:

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Theoretical tests – of parts 3 and 4:

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Present limitations and timeline of the predictions

The predictions have no end in time. The aim remains to extend the list of tests in cosmology and to improve the calculations of the fundamental constants.

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What speaks against the strand conjecture

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What speaks in favour of the strand conjecture

  1. So far, all consequences of the strand conjecture – as well as all predictions and tests – agree with all known experiments. Starting in 2019, the predictions were listed on this page and published in physics journals. So far, all checks are positive. (More precisely, the lack of deviations from general relativity was predicted in 2000, whereas most strand predictions are from 2009 and were included in volume VI of the Motion Mountain series. The remaining strand predictions are from 2014.)
  2. The strand model is based on a discovery in fundamental physics that is experiencing growing interest: maximum force. This limit principle, combined with the ideas of Dirac and of Battey-Pratt and Racey, led to the fundamental principle of the strand conjecture.
  3. The strand conjecture is the first and only conjecture that explains the elementary particles and all their observed properties, and does not add unobserved ones. Strands explain why there are three particle generations and why protons have the same charge as positrons.
  4. The strand conjecture is the first and only conjecture that explains the four interactions and their observed properties, and does not add unobserved ones. Strands explain quantum field theory, the gauge groups, the gauge interaction Lagrangians, the full standard model Lagrangian, the vanishing vacuum energy and the lack of a Landau pole; strands explain the field equations of general relativity, the Hilbert Lagrangian, black hole entropy and the no-hair theorem.
  5. The strand conjecture is the first conjecture (of only two) that estimates the fundamental constants ab initio. Strands predict the normal neutrino mass sequence and a rough value for the weak mixing angle, ab initio; and by explaining the fine structure constant and the mass of the electron more precisely – and ab initio – strands will explain all colours in nature.
  6. The strand conjecture is the first and only conjecture that explains everything ab initio in (fundamental) physics. It explains the principle of least action, the dimensionality of space, all conventional "principles", and all Lagrangians used in physics. All consequences of the strand conjecture – all explanations and all predictions – derive from a single principle at the Planck scale. There is no way to modify the strand conjecture. There is no way (except by changing tangle–particle assignments) to change the predictions of the conjecture. No questions in fundamental physics are left unanswered.
  7. Finally, the strand conjecture fits on a T-shirt, as often required. The T-shirt contains and agrees with all of textbook physics. And of course, the strand conjecture is based only on professional physics books, papers and journals and is published only in such books and journals. And of course, the strand conjecture gets no points on the various crackpot indices. Above all, the strand conjecture agrees with all available experimental data - but remains falsifiable. As required by science, the numerous high-precision predictions on this page, in the publications and in the preprints – and the many people working on those topics – make falsification easy in principle, as is demanded by any candidate theory in physics.

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A money back guarantee for contributors

You can contribute to efforts falsifying the conjecture by finding a single effect, or by funding an experiment, that detects physics beyond the standard model or beyond general relativity. Or you can contribute towards the strand conjecture and support strand research with 0.001% (10 ppm) of your or your organisation's annual budget. If donor anonymity is desired, it will be respected.

Are you a donor or a sponsor thinking about a medium-sized contribution? Given the promising results so far, the Motion Mountain Physikverein and I make an unusual offer (since 2020): if desired, in the case that just one of the hundreds of predictions and tests given above fails, the received financial support for strand research will be refunded. In short: strand conjecture falsified, money back.

Are you a donor or a sponsor thinking about a large contribution? In this case, the Motion Mountain Physikverein and I make an additional offer (also since 2020): if another, inequivalent conjecture about the unification of physics arises – explaining particles and forces, estimating fundamental constants, and explaining least action and the number of dimensions – then the received financial support for strand research will also be refunded. Even if the strand conjecture is not falsified. In short: strand conjecture not unique, money back.

Private bets about the best path to unification are an interesting option. In the past, christoph@motionmountain.net has proposed private bets on one or several predictions of the strand conjecture. All predictions have withstood the test of time. I also regularly offer a free dinner, on social media, to anybody providing a new argument against or in favour of the strand tangle model. This includes the first person telling me about a specific counterexample to the predictions listed above.

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