Light in Space-Time: Ripples in the Universe??

[JustCurious?!]

This is a purely imaginative question while I am reading Hawking's books.

 

I am wondering about the whole light being a wave and particle at the same time and string theory; is light like a string through space-time so that in one point of view, light is a particle (cross-section of a string) but light is also a wave (like waves produced on a string)? So just as in the two-slit experiment that showed destructive interference and constructive interference, does this happen to light in the scale of the universe? I am trying to imagine light in the view of string theory with world-sheets having a wave-like properties and ripple effects with destructive and constructive interference. If other particles have wave-particle properties as stated in his book, do they also undergo destructive and constructive interference?

 

Or maybe I just have an overactive imagination lol

[ajb]

In 4d particle sweep out world lines, which are one dimensional objects. That is close to what you are thinking of.

If other particles have wave-particle properties as stated in his book, do they also undergo destructive and constructive interference?

In essence yes, all particles can be described as waves and thus particles wave-like properties.

[JustCurious?!]

Thanks for the clarification. So a particle in 4D creates world-lines which I assume also have wave properities? So do world-lines interact with each other causing constructive and destructive interference? If that is true, then would that mean that particles can disrupt other particles' time (ie cancel the particle's time-point)?

[swansont]

Thanks for the clarification. So a particle in 4D creates world-lines which I assume also have wave properities? So do world-lines interact with each other causing constructive and destructive interference? If that is true, then would that mean that particles can disrupt other particles' time (ie cancel the particle's time-point)?

 

Canceling/disrupting time is nonsensical. The wave here is the deBroglie wave, given by h/p (Planck's constant/momentum). I'm not aware of any model that says world lines have wave properties; world lines are a representation of a trajectory, which is a classical notion and generally goes away when discussing quantum phenomenon.

[JustCurious?!]

Oh okay. I made a bad assumption about the world-line. Thanks for the info