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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How are black holes are widely believed to have originated?
(a) Spontaneously from quantum foam.
(b) From the collapse of a star.
(c) Through the phase transition of normal elementary particles.
(d) From the collision of stars.

2. Which of the following is true regarding the tearing of space-time according to string theory?
(a) A tear would destroy the universe.
(b) It is not known if space-time can tear.
(c) It can tear under special circumstances.
(d) It cannot tear.

3. What is the scientific state of the "multiverse" theory?
(a) It is on the fringes of physics.
(b) It is well accepted by the physics community.
(c) It is accepted by almost all young physicists, but almost no older ones.
(d) It was discarded years ago.

4. The extra dimension or dimensions in M-theory are needed in order to incorporate _____.
(a) Electromagnetism.
(b) Electroweak duality.
(c) Supergravity.
(d) Unwound Calabi-Yau spaces.

5. In ratios of what number do winding energies come?
(a) Ten.
(b) Six.
(c) Two.
(d) Any whole number.

6. According to string theory, which of the following cannot occur during the collapse of the universe?
(a) It cannot lose energy.
(b) It cannot exert gravitational pull greater than the Planck tension.
(c) It cannot collapse into one of the extra dimensions.
(d) It cannot be reduced to a size smaller than the Planck length.

7. What is M-theory?
(a) A specialized version of the "Heterotic A" string theory.
(b) A theory that would unite all branches of string theory.
(c) An open-ended string theory.
(d) A combination of general relativity and string theory.

8. It is believed that early on, the universe experienced symmetry breaking, meaning that _____.
(a) Quantum fluctuations caused different expanding areas to have different energy densities.
(b) The universe expanded very rapidly for a short time.
(c) The three non-gravitational forces were separated out.
(d) Three of the space dimensions expanded asymmetrically compared to the others.

9. At what scale of length is quantum geometry necessitated?
(a) Cosmological scales.
(b) The Riemann scale.
(c) Nanometers.
(d) The Planck length.

10. In what important way does string theory affect the cosmological model of the big bang?
(a) The big bang created strings, not particles.
(b) The universe started at a certain minimum size.
(c) The big bang could have created multiple universes.
(d) The universe is infinite, but has no boundaries.

11. Riemannian geometry describes the following objects: _____.
(a) Finite, unbounded spaces.
(b) Six-dimensional manifolds.
(c) Curved spaces.
(d) N-dimensional spheres.

12. Which of the following is NOT a property that is used to define both black holes and elementary particles?
(a) Force charge.
(b) Mass.
(c) Half-life.
(d) Spin.

13. String theory claims that super particles _____.
(a) Are the only non-string particles.
(b) Are massless.
(c) Come in pairs.
(d) Do not exist.

14. Why can the objects predicted by string theory not be observed?
(a) Current magnification is at least 17 times too wide.
(b) The objects exist only in other dimensions.
(c) The objects are not composed of matter.
(d) Light does not exist at the scales involved.

15. How many dimensions are necessitated by M-theory?
(a) Eight.
(b) Eleven.
(c) Ten.
(d) Nine.

Short Answer Questions

1. In string theory, how do strings interact?

2. About how long after the big bang were stars formed?

3. How does the number of extra "curled up" dimensions affect the vibration of strings?

4. What is a virtual string pair?

5. Which of the following is true regarding experimental evidence for super particles?

(see the answer keys)

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