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Not sure this analogy holds. Although the ratio of Jupiter's and Saturn's major orbital axis might seem arbitrary, given all the prior conditions to the orbit f
by placebo 12y ago
Not sure this analogy holds. Although the ratio of Jupiter's and Saturn's major orbital axis might seem arbitrary, given all the prior conditions to the orbit formations, current physics theories perhaps could have theoretically predicted this ratio long before it came to be. In the same way, physicists would like an elegant model that would predict or explain the constants in a way that makes more sense in a larger picture rather than having them as some magic numbers.
- Steuard 12y agoExactly. That's pretty much what multiverse models suggest might be true for "fundamental constants": if you somehow knew the precise conditions of our part of the universe in the moments leading up to our big bang (and the parameters of whatever process triggered it: quantum fluctuations or whatever), you could in principle predict things like the charge to mass ratio of the electron. (E.g. if you knew the precise shape and fluxes of our 6-dimensional Calabi-Yau compactification manifold in string theory, you could work out the low-energy field content and coupling constants of the resulting universe.) [String phenomenology isn't really my field, but I certainly haven't had a lot of luck deriving a unique background from pure theory. I did once think that I'd found a model that predicted the cosmological constant to within an order of magnitude or two, but that obviously didn't pan out.]