January 2nd, 2023
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| (EyeEm/Getty Images/Omar Jabri) |
Nothing travels more quickly than light. It is a physical principle that is ingrained in the fundamental foundation of Einstein's special theory of relativity. The closer anything moves to its perception of time stopping, the quicker it moves.
If you go any faster, time reversal problems arise, confusing ideas of causality.
However, researchers from the National University of Singapore and the University of Warsaw in Poland have now stretched the boundaries of relativity to develop a system that doesn't conflict with current physics and may perhaps pave the door for new theories.
Instead of the three spatial dimensions and one time dimension that we are all accustomed to, scientists have developed a "extension of special relativity" that mixes three time dimensions with a single space dimension ("1+3 space-time").
This new study offers further proof to support the premise that items can very well be able to travel faster than light without entirely defying our present rules of physics, rather than introducing any significant logical flaws.
According to Polish physicist Andrzej Dragan of the University of Warsaw, there is no fundamental reason why observers travelling relative to the specified physical systems at speeds faster than the speed of light shouldn't be susceptible to it.
This new study extends earlier work by some of the same researchers that suggests superluminal perspectives could help tie together quantum mechanics and Einstein's special theory of relativity - two branches of physics that are currently incompatible and cannot be reconciled into a single overarching theory that describes gravity in the same way we explain other forces.
Under this paradigm, particles can no longer be modelled as pointlike objects as we might in the more common 3D (plus time) view of the Universe.
Instead, we would need to go to the types of field theories that underlie quantum physics to make sense of what viewers may see and how a superluminal particle might behave.
According to this new theory, superluminal things would resemble particles that were expanding like bubbles through space, similar to how waves move through fields. On the other side, the fast-moving item would "experience" multiple alternative timelines.
However, even for observers travelling faster than the speed of light, the speed of light in a vacuum would stay constant, maintaining one of Einstein's fundamental laws, which was previously only considered in reference to observers travelling slower than the speed of light (like all of us).
Dragan claims that the new definition upholds Einstein's assumption that superluminal viewers may still witness light travelling at its constant speed in a vacuum.
Thus, "our extended special relativity" does not seem like a particularly novel concept.
The researchers do admit that adopting a 1+3 space-time paradigm both raises and provides answers to certain new issues. They contend that the theory of special relativity must be expanded to include frames of reference travelling faster than the speed of light.
Combining ideas from special relativity, quantum physics, and classical field theory might very well require taking inspiration from quantum field theory(which aims to predict how physical fields are going to interact with each other).
The particles of the universe would all have amazing characteristics under extended special relativity if the scientists are correct.
Whether or whether we would ever be able to see this prolonged behaviour is one of the concerns the research raises, but determining the answer will take a lot more time and a lot more scientists.
According to University of Warsaw physicist Krzysztof Turzyski, "the mere experimental finding of a new fundamental particle is an accomplishment worthy of the Nobel Prize and doable in a big research team employing the newest experimental techniques."
To better understand the process of spontaneous symmetry breaking connected to the mass of the Higgs particle and other Standard Model components, particularly in the early Universe, we intend to use our findings.
The study was released in the journals classical and quantum gravity.
January 2nd, 2023
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