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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. According to modern physics, which of the following may cease to exist at the center of a black hole?
(a) Time.
(b) Energy.
(c) Strings.
(d) Space.

2. What distinction does dark matter have?
(a) It is composed of anti-matter.
(b) It does not give off light.
(c) It can spontaneously form black holes.
(d) It exists in curled-up dimensions.

3. In string theory, how do strings interact?
(a) By resonating with each other.
(b) By colliding and tangling.
(c) By joining and splitting.
(d) By threading.

4. What property of both black holes and elementary particles is still unknown?
(a) Their relationships to strings.
(b) Their spin.
(c) Their internal structures.
(d) Their supersymmetric partners.

5. About how long did the "primordial synthesis" stage of the big bang last?
(a) One picosecond.
(b) Two years.
(c) Four seconds.
(d) Three minutes.

6. Which team of researchers discovered the process for altering Calabi-Yau spaces by rupturing them?
(a) Bohr and Feynman.
(b) Yau and Tian.
(c) Hawking and Fermi.
(d) Greene and Morrison.

7. What is the importance of the string-coupling constant?
(a) It could invalidate the perturbation method.
(b) If discovered, it could validate string theory as a whole.
(c) It is crucial in estimating the amount of dark energy in the universe.
(d) It determines the energy released during a string's collapse.

8. Which of the following is true regarding the force of gravity in string theory?
(a) Gravity in string theory acts over much longer distances.
(b) Gravity is not addressed in string theory.
(c) String theory predicts gravity.
(d) Gravity in string theory is stronger than what we actually observe.

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

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

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

12. What is supergravity?
(a) The relativistic effect of two particles occupying the same location.
(b) The gravitational force felt at the Planck scale.
(c) The gravitational conditions inside a black hole.
(d) A combination of general relativity and supersymmetry.

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

14. Who posited the existence of M-theory?
(a) Greene.
(b) Brandenberger.
(c) Plesser.
(d) Witten.

15. What is the collapse and reformation of a Calabi-Yau shape called?
(a) A space-tearing flop transition.
(b) A binary transition.
(c) A conifold transition.
(d) A manifold transition.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which of the following is true regarding the tearing of space-time according to general relativity?

2. Which of the following best describes a wormhole?

3. What problem of cosmology was the inflationary model created to deal with?

4. What metric best approximates the scales at which extra dimensions would have a major impact?

5. The method of tearing space-time discovered by Greene and others is called _____.

(see the answer keys)

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