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These theories predict multiverse and multiverse is not falsifiable So Is it more accurate to call them just hypotheses?

user17755
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  • Related: http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/15/what-experiment-would-disprove-string-theory? http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/34015/regarding-string-theory-how-to-refute-the-argument-if-it-cannot-be-tested-expe – dmckee --- ex-moderator kitten Jul 04 '16 at 03:43

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Why don't we call string, inflation theories just hypotheses?

All physics theories are mathematical models of measurements and observations and are predictive for new measurements and observations. Each theory is a hypothesis which has to be validated by new data, or if it is falsified a new model has to be found.

The inflation theories model the data from astrophysics, and are successful in building up the Big Bang model. Certainly there are predictions which cannot be validated, but at the present time it is a well validated model within our observational powers.

String theories are at the research level, are mainly pursued because quantization of gravity presents no problem within these theories, and they are flexible enough to embed the standard model of particle physics (a lot of data modeled by it). They are at the research level, because no fixed standard string theory model has appeared yet.

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anna v
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  • String theory is not even at the level of a hypothesis, yet, and neither is inflation. – CuriousOne Jul 04 '16 at 05:31
  • @CuriousOne chacun à son goût – anna v Jul 04 '16 at 06:33
  • I don't decide things by taste, I just keep close to the definitions. String theory isn't even a hypothesis because it can't be tested and inflation isn't one because it can't even be formulated. – CuriousOne Jul 04 '16 at 06:34
  • Doesnt general relativity pop out of string theory? We've certainly tested predictions from general relativity. So do theories have to provide NEW and unique predictions? – user122066 Jul 04 '16 at 12:26
  • E.g. if in some far away alien civilization string theory was discovered before GR then a subset of string theory would be predictive and verifiable much like QFT was before feynman stuckelburg and schwinger no? – user122066 Jul 04 '16 at 13:35
  • @user122066 Yes, in that sense . – anna v Jul 04 '16 at 14:37