Vanishing Dimensions

Julia Knobloch
light ex gross.jpgResearchers have outlined an experiment that could prove what is called the hypothesis of the vanishing dimensions.  According to the theory, the early universe was something like a straight 1-D line of pure energy. That line may have evolved into two dimensions--a plane--until it grew into the three and (some argue) four-dimensional space scientists try to understand today.

According to the concept of “vanishing dimensions”, the further astrophyscists look back, the less dimensions they find. In a paper recently published in Physical Review Letters, Dejan Stojkovic (University at Buffalo) and Jonas Mureika (Loyola Marymount University) describe how the planned Laser Interferometer Space Antenna LISA could help address fundamental questions in particle physics.

Stojkovic and Mureika reason that, once deployed, LISA would search for gravitational waves in epochs of the early universe. Since such waves cannot exist in one or two - dimensional space, the device should not detect them in the outer reaches of the universe. This would be evidence for their theory of low dimensionality at extremely high energy levels. 

It will still take many years before the envisioned tests can be realized. The researchers hope that the collected data will also trigger explanations for the accelerated expansion of the universe, which is one of the many big mysteries about the cosmos.

With their proposed framework, which Stojkovic calls “new and radical”, he and Mureika hope to simplify things: Physicists have struggled with the same problems for 10, 20, 30 years, and straight-forward extensions of extensions of the existing ideas are unlikely to solve them,“ Stojkovic said.

Reducing the number of dimensions means to unify: in 1-D, formerly different particles become alike. On a line, you can only go back, or forth. In an unscientific way of saying it is as if the universe, in the nanoseconds after the Big Bang, stretched and concentrated before things got really complicated.

 

Image Light Experimentation1 by snoozeman.06 on Flickr, courtesy of Creative Commons Licensing.

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Comments

Very very interesting

Submitted by John Topp on Fri, 04/29/2011 - 12:01.

Thanks. This concept is appealing and already has some evidence in it's favour.

Why "vanishing" though, shouldn't it be "expanding dimensions" or something?

Yes, let's do it, because 3D

Submitted by mountain wind on Sat, 04/30/2011 - 00:18.
Yes, let's do it, because 3D is getting kind of crammed. I'm sure a new dimension in addition to what we already have would really make big difference.

Vanishing vs expanding

Submitted by Julia Knobloch on Sun, 05/01/2011 - 10:34.
Thank you both for your comments. The name of the theory may indeed be confusing. But when you consider that it refers to the scientists looking back in time, it makes more sense: The farther they look back, the less dimensions they assume to find. So the dimensions are "vanishing" while looking back in time.

I have a theory for 2D to 3D

Submitted by gdoskas on Mon, 05/02/2011 - 14:17.
I don’t know how the 1-dimensional world evolves into a 2-dimensional world, but I would guess a 1-dimensional line would curve into a circle or circular disk/plane and create the 2nd dimension. The transformation from 2D to 3D would happen using the simplest and stable 3D element that is a cone. As these circular disks grew in size they would start to warp into cone shapes. What I discovered in my book is that there are very special cone sizes that can be circumscribed in a sphere that have similar geometric properties as all five Platonic solids. So as an infinite number of different circular disks and then cones are created only five cone sizes can be arranged that would fit perfectly into a Platonic solid. It just doesn’t seem feasible that 3D polyhedral would directly evolve form 2D polygons, so the cone is the missing link. I have tried to include a link to my book on Google Docs but the post blocks it.

I have a theory for 2D to 3D

Submitted by gdoskas on Mon, 05/02/2011 - 16:26.

 

Here's the link to my book

 https

//docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B4hF7wBZgu-dOGNiYjdiMTYtZWRlNS00NmNmLTk3MzMtYmM5OTk2NGI3ODIx&hl=en&authkey=CMKT444L

Higher Dimensions are really Lower

Submitted by Hollywood Tomfortas on Sat, 05/07/2011 - 00:44.

Hi Julia, You might be interested to know that Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) claimed that perceiving the spiritual world beyond the physical was a process of going from our normal intellectual consciousness in 3-D to ever lower dimensions.

The first level that he called Imagination or "spiritual seeing," was leaving ordinary 3-D consciousness behind and going into a realm that was 2-dimensional, like a movie screen.

The next level he called Inspiration, a kind of "spiritual hearing" was One-Dimensional in nature, and finally the ultimate level of Intuition, or "spiritual touching" also "spiritual being-at-one" was a Zero-Dimensional.

Of course, a geometrical point is zero-dimensional, but since Steiner also swore by Projective Geometry, then the infinitely small point was also the infinitely expansive sphere, or the entire kit and caboodle of the universe --- yet still Zero-Dimensional in its essence.

Tom Mellett

Los Angeles, CA

there is a lot of theories

Submitted by Herrald on Wed, 11/02/2011 - 09:49.
there is a lot of theories about our universe and this one is one of the most interesting..debt management service