Cat's Cradle - String Theory Explorer

Cat's Cradle is a Mass Spectrum Equation simulator for various topologies in the form of a web application that provides a dashboard for visualizing and interacting with the string theory simulation. Users can view the current state of the system, update various parameters, and observe the changes in the mass spectrum.

Table of Contents

• Installation
• Quick Start
• API Endpoints
• Development
• Contributing
• License

Installation

Prerequisites

• Docker Desktop

Quick Start

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/talamantez/cats-cradle.git
cd cats-cradle

2. Start the application:

docker compose up -d

3. Open your web browser and navigate to http://localhost:8000

To stop the application:

docker compose down

Features

The Cat's Cradle dashboard provides:

• Interactive parameter controls for string theory simulation
  • Dimensions (4-26)
  • String Tension
  • Coupling Constant
  • α' (Alpha Prime)
  • Compare Topologies: TOPOLOGY_FACTORS = { "Calabi-Yau": 1.0, # Standard case "Torus": 0.8, # Simpler topology "Orbifold": 1.2, # More complex spectrum "K3": 1.5 # Rich structure with supersymmetry }
• Real-time mass spectrum visualization
• Live system state monitoring
• Automatic parameter validation
• Beautiful, responsive interface

API Endpoints

The app exposes the following API endpoints:

• GET /api/v1/string-theory/: Retrieves the current state of the string theory system
• POST /api/v1/string-theory/update: Updates the parameters of the string theory system
• Swagger UI documentation available at /docs
• ReDoc documentation available at /redoc

Development

Local Development with Docker

1. Make changes to the code
2. Rebuild and restart the containers:

docker compose down
docker compose up -d --build

Running Tests

docker compose run --rm api pytest

Contributing

We welcome contributions! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Physics Background

This simulation implements basic string theory concepts:

• The dimensions parameter (default: 10) matches superstring theory's required spacetime dimensions
• String tension and coupling parameters control string interactions
• Alpha prime (α') determines the characteristic string length scale
• Mass spectrum follows the relationship M² = n/α'
• Topology: The study of the fundamental shape and connectivity of spacetime