Discussion on the testability of beyond the standard model physics concepts

Question

This discussion got started below Dimension10s answer to a question about current open problems in string theory and LQG

Comments

@MathematicalPhysicist I'm talking about theoretical testability. "Not even wrong", that is not being scientific, entails being theoretically untestable.

By the way, these probably aren't all so far away after all -- we've only tested the inverse-square law (the standard test for extra dimensions) up to the scale of about 0.1mm, and many people believe that the LHC might be able to detect SUSY quite soon. N = 1 is not at all far from our currently accessible energy scales.

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@dimension10 But if SUSY isn't detected then does it mean the end of SUSY?

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@MathematicalPhysicist Of the specific SUSY models tested, that is the specific energies tested, yes. But this is not a lack of falsifiability in SUSY any more than the infinite parameter space of the Standard Model is a problem with the Standard Model.

@Dilaton I don't think off-topic discussions are as big a problem now that we have comment autocollapsing, but if you find a problem with it, I'm fine with having it moved to chat.

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@dimension10 can you elaborate on the " infinite parameter space of the Standard Model " issue? thanks in advance.

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@MathematicalPhysicist I meant the 25 dimensionless constants of the standard model, which creates an landspace which is an infinite 25-dimensional space. Same thing for the standard model of cosmology for example, which has one dimensionless constant (the cosmological constant), again completely unexplained with non-stringy physics.

The ratio of the size of the string landscape to that of the standard model is exactly 0:1 :-)

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At least LQG has been falsified, as the saying goes:"I don't think it's even wrong..." about string theory.

:-D

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@MathematicalPhysicist The saying is not correct for string theory -- string theory makes concrete, testable predictions although the landscape is admittedly large.