From: jizba@verizon.net   
      
   Nalin Ratnayake wrote:   
      
   > Could you clarify what you mean by "defining three dimensional space"?   
   > I'm not wuite sure I understand what you mean.   
   >   
      
     According to Brian Greene (The Elegant Universe) the latest theory   
   of Everything is called M-theory. It postulates the 10 dimensional   
   Calabi-Yau space in which the extra dimensions are curled up. Objects   
   in this space can be one dimensional (strings) two dimensional (membranes)   
      
   three dimensional (3-branes) and conceivably with even higher   
   dimensions. (I am not sure my explanation is correct but it is probably   
   close.)   
      
   A 3-brane would be an object that fills a space of three dimensions. My   
   suggestion (feel free to call this my fantasy) is that at the beginning   
   of the "big bang" when the exponential expansion (inflation) got started,   
   space and the mass of the universe were small. However under the   
   temperature of 10^28 degrees K, strings as well as other "branes"   
   including 3-branes started to replicate (think of popcorn) in such a way   
   that the high temperature was maintained. This process may have   
   continued indefinitely, except that the 3-branes overtook the mass   
   particles so that the expansion cooled to the point where only 3-branes   
   continued to increase leaving the total mass of the universe at its   
   present state.   
      
   >   
   > Thanks,   
   > N.   
   >   
   > Zdenek Jizba wrote:   
   > > I just finished reading Brian Greene's "The Elegant   
   > > Universe". The section in chapter 15 titled "What are   
   > > Space and Time, Really, and can we do without them?"   
   > > suggests in my mind a tantalizing question:   
   > >   
   > >    "Is there an elementary particle (possibly related   
   > > to the graviton) which defines three dimensional space?   
   > >   
   > >  Any comments on this would be appreciated.   
      
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