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Two separate teams of scientists have bent the rules of physics to catch a glimpse of evidence on something which, technically, we shouldn’t be able to perceive: a fourth spatial dimension.
Everyone is aware of our standard three dimensions of space and one dimension of time, but the two teams, one based in the US and the other in Europe, have shown the existence of a fourth spatial dimension by employing some head-melting quantum mechanics and a bit of laser trickery.
The teams created two custom-designed, two-dimensional experiments to generate an instance of the quantum Hall effect, which restricts the movement of electrons, allowing us to both perceive and measure them in a unique way. The quantum hall effect points to the existence of a fourth spatial dimension. Researchers who studied the effect won the 2016 Nobel Prize for Physics. The quantum Hall effect usually manifests itself in the boundary between two materials, where electrons can only move in two dimensions.
When a magnetic field is produced perpendicular to the 2D plane it greatly changes the behavior of electrons which flow through it, which can further be manipulated by reducing the temperature and increasing the voltage within the environment. The larger the field and the greater the voltage, the more of a role quantum mechanics plays.
"Physically, we don't have a 4D spatial system, but we can access 4D quantum Hall physics using this lower-dimensional system because the higher-dimensional system is coded in the complexity of the structure," Mikael Rechtsman from Penn State University told Gizmodo.
"Maybe we can come up with new physics in the higher dimension and then design devices that take advantage the higher-dimensional physics in lower dimensions."
The European-based team supercooled atoms close to absolute zero, which were then placed in a 2d lattice created using lasers, before ‘exciting’ the atoms using additional lasers to get them moving again.
The US-based team took a different approach by beaming a laser through a block of glass to simulate the effect of an electric field on charged particles, as required to produce the quantum Hall effect.
"I think that the two experiments nicely complement each other," one of the European researchers, Michael Lohse from the Ludwig-Maximilians University in Germany, told Gizmodo.
Put simply, as we perceive it, 3D objects cast 2D shadows, so it follows that 4D objects would cast 3D shadows, even if we can't actually see the 4D object itself. Approximately two decades ago, boffins proved mathematically that fourth dimensional movement was possible but such theories were relegated to the realm of science fiction.
"At the time, however, that was more like science fiction," said Oded Zilberberg as cited by Eureka Alert, "as actually observing something like that in an experiment seemed impossible – after all, physical space only has three dimensions."
By using a topological 'pump' to manipulate the 2D environments in the experiments, Zilberberg postulated that we can, theoretically at least, turn a two-dimensional system into a four-dimensional one.
"Right now, those experiments are still far from any useful application," Zilberberg admits.
However, as such research continues, it could afford us unique perspectives on current fields of study. One such instance would be in materials science.
Quasicrystals in metallic alloys have no periodic structure in three dimensions but do in higher, theoretical ones such as the fourth dimension. Such quasicrystals could one day greatly reinforce steel, develop improved heat insulation, and provide new materials which convert heat to electricity.
They could also be used as solar absorbers for power conversion in the renewable energy industry as well providing low-friction alternatives to current artificial bone repair and prostheses applications in the medical science field.
Put simply, as we perceive it, 3D objects cast 2D shadows, so it follows that 4D objects would cast 3D shadows, even if we can't actually see the 4D object itself. Approximately two decades ago, boffins proved mathematically that fourth dimensional movement was possible but such theories were relegated to the realm of science fiction.
Put simply, as we perceive it, 3D objects cast 2D shadows, so it follows that 4D objects would cast 3D shadows
quantum Hall effect
originally posted by: DupontDeux
a reply to: PublicOpinion
Put simply, as we perceive it, 3D objects cast 2D shadows, so it follows that 4D objects would cast 3D shadows
The thing is, they do not really. They do not 'cast' shadows.
originally posted by: SkeptiSchism
a reply to: Planette
Seems to me we're just unlocking the potential of electricity. To this point we've used electricity in 2 dimensions that is positive and negative, or 0s and 1s.
But electricity may be able to flow more like a cloud. This will garner negative replies as it already has from my experience but our brain is more or less a cloud of neurons that pass electrical information.
originally posted by: Wide-Eyes
a reply to: SkeptiSchism
Isn't that what Tesla discovered?
originally posted by: ColdWisdom
a reply to: PublicOpinion
Upon reading this extraordinary article I was reminded of Jacques Vallee and his Interdimensional Hypothesis regarding UFOs as some form of non human intelligence that is able to travel through higher dimensions.
This is truly revolutionary. It almost makes me wonder if this new amendment to the laws of physics has already been known and exploited by some other group of scientists, Paperclip comes to mind.
Ever since Albert Einstein developed the special theory of relativity in Zurich in 1905, by «fourth dimension» one usually means time. But how can one visualize a fourth spatial dimension - in addition to top-bottom, right-left and front-back? In the arts Salvador Dalí tried that: his crucifixion scene painted in 1954 shows as cross consisting of the three-dimensional unfolding of a hypercube in four dimensions (similarly to the unfolding of a cube into squares). A completely different, but no less fascinating, look into the fourth spatial dimension was now obtained by two teams of scientists from Switzerland, USA, Germany, Italy and Israel. The ETH researcher Oded Zilberberg, professor at the Institute for Theoretical Physics, played a pivotal role in both publications, which were recently published in the scientific journal Nature. He provided the theoretical basis for the experiments in which a four-dimensional physical phenomenon could be observed in two dimensions.
The quantum Hall effect
Both experiments dealt with the so-called quantum Hall effect. Commonly, that effect manifests in the boundary layer between two materials, in which electrons can only move in two dimensions. A magnetic field perpendicular to the material initially leads to the classical Hall effect: a current flowing through the material gives rise to a voltage in the perpendicular direction - the larger the magnetic field, the higher the voltage. The reason for this is that the magnetic field generates a force acting at right angles to the direction of motion (the Lorentz force) that deviates the electrons. At very low temperatures and very large magnetic fields, however, quantum mechanics starts playing a role, which means that the voltage no longer increases continuously, but rather jumps in discrete steps. Three Nobel Prizes in Physics have so far been awarded for experimental and theoretical work on the quantum Hall effect.
A question of topology
The quantum Hall effect can also be understood as a topological phenomenon. Topology describes, for instance, how many "holes" an object has and into what other shapes it can be transformed without cutting it. Similar laws are responsible in the quantum Hall effect for the electrons' only being able to move along topologically well-defined paths. For particular strengths of the magnetic field, for example, the electric current can only flow along the edges of the material, but not inside it. Around twenty years ago, it was shown mathematically that analogous topological effects should also occur in four spatial dimensions. "At the time, however, that was more like science fiction", says Oded Zilberberg, "as actually observing something like that in an experiment seemed impossible - after all, physical space only has three dimensions."
[...]
So do 4d objects contain 3d aspects? If so we should be able to manipulate them right?