system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
What does string theory does differently that current theories do not when dealing with singularities?

From what I gather, in string theory we naturally unify QFT and GR, so does it solve the problems that we encounter at a singularity? If so, what explanation does it offer when particles are broken down to their fundamental bits inside a black hole. Please shed light on how our understanding of black holes, and singularities would further if string theory is indeed true?
gpt
In string theory, black holes are actually p-branes. Normal particles are instead strings. When the strings are very close to the brane, it becomes possible for them to interact in a way that leads to no infinities. The interaction is the result of the contribution of all possible histories (as it's normal in a quantum mechanical theory) which can involve strings splitting or joining, string endpoints getting attached to the brane or detaching, some other things and all combination of this building blocks. The outcome is always finite because outcomes in string theory always are.

To give an intuition, the "regulator" that prevents the singularity from being truly singular is the finite size of strings which cuts the divergences short - intuitively the string cannot see things smaller than the string length. Instead a particle theory (such as local quantum field theories like the standard model) has point particles and will lead to infinities when placed near a singularity.