An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics

The latest theory of fundamental physics in which the basic entity is a one-dimensional → brane rather than the “zero-dimensional” point of conventional elementary particle physics. The one-dimensional string-like objects exist in the normal four dimensions of → space-time
plus additional dimensions, the total dimensions being ten, eleven, or twenty-six depending on the version of the theory. Particles are strings that vibrate in different ways to account for their various properties.

See also: → string; → theory.