William Sharkey

Are string modes the frequencies of harmonics that the string vibrates at, like Fundamental, 2*Fundamental, 3*Fundamental etc...? So strings can be defined by their frequency spectra + phase spectra + overall string positions in space? Wouldn't it be rare that a string's spectra would only contain energy at a single frequency/mode at a time? What mechanism or constraint leads to quantization of string energy? When a string is plucked on a musical instrument, I know that at the beginning, the string contains a wide band of spectral energy, but as time moves forward, the wide-band energy is corralled and settles at the harmonics of the string. Does such a phenomenon occur when strings collide, or does energy always reside in "modes"? Is "quantization" an active process which throws away information in a continuous environment, or is "quantization" an informational constraint of the environment that is never really interferes with data?

I know that string theory has many variants and is more or less invented, but I am just looking for a starting point, so it's okay if you can answer in generalities. I have read that the way that a "string" vibrates determines what subatomic particle it is. For example, one vibration mode might make the string act like a proton. Is it possible to change the amplitude of the vibration of the string? Are vibrational amplitudes set, stepped or continuous? Is string theory usually constructed so that a single string maps to a single subatomic particle? What is stopping a string from representing multiple particles, like 5 protons and and three electrons ? To take this further, could a single string represent trillions of particles, or perhaps the entire universe? If there are two loops of string, but one is set spinning, does the spinning one stretch? If it stretches, is there a test/measurement that can be done to determine the direction of spinning? Is there a limit to how much vibration or energy a string can have? If the mater is made of vibrating strings, do events only occur when string collisions occur? Would string theory predict that the speed of flow of information depends on the rate of string collisions? If a collision occurs at one point on a string, is that information transmitted instantaneously to all points on the string, or does it have to take time travel/propagate around the loop?