Universe Might Have Had a Single Dimension
According to the website sciencedaily.com, there are certain scientists who believe that when the Universe got formed, it had only one dimension. The theory was created by Dejan Stojkovic and his colleagues from the University at Buffalo.
The physicists believe that when the Universe was first formed, it was very small. It was similar to a line, and thus it had a single dimension. In time, it grew, and it reached the other dimensions as well. From a line it evolved into a plane which had two dimensions and then it evolved in the Universe which currently exists and which has three dimensions. Of course, the theory has not been proven, but in case it will be proven, many uncertainties regarding the particle physics will be discerned. Stojkovic and Jonas Mureika, who is a physicists at the Loyola Marymount University stated in the Physical News Letters that they want to use a test in order to see if the theory is valid or not. Light passes very slowly in space, and the physicists can use this in order to look back in time, at the outer points of the Universe.
If the outer parts of the Universe were two dimensional, then gravitational waves would not be possible there. The two scientists believe that the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna will be able to scan the desired parts of the Universe in order to check for gravitational waves. They hope that the waves will not be detected, because if they are, the theory is not valid. Stojkovic said that his theory is different than all the other theories about the universe. He said that when we think about the Universe we believe that it has always been three dimensional, when it could have been two dimensional in the beginning. He stated that the dimensionality of the space is influenced by the amount of space we can see. The smaller the space is, the fewer dimensions there are. The Universe is on a constant expansion and this means that the fourth dimension will open, or that it has already opened in an area which we can not see.
He said that it is very likely that numerous other dimensions will emerge in the future, in the case that his theory is valid. The entire field is waiting to see the results of the test, because if the theory proves to be true, then many answers regarding the particle physics will be revealed. For example one of these unsolved questions is the incompatibility between the quantum mechanics and general relativity. Both of them can be used when describing the Universe, but at different scales. The quantum mechanics can be used at small scales, whereas the general relativity can be used at large scales. For the moment, the two are considered to be incompatible. The two theories would be compatible if the theory is correct, because the same mathematical formulas could be used for the Universe, regardless of the size.
Another mystery is the constant expansion of the Universe. The researchers have observed for a very long time now that the Universe is expanding very fast, but they have no idea why. If the theory is true, then the constant growth of the Universe could be explained by the addition of a new dimension after certain period of time. The Higgs boson would be explained as well. The researchers have talked for a very long time about the existence of the Higgs boson particle. The problem with it is the fact that it does not have a certain mass; the researchers use different masses when they calculate different things. If the Universe has fewer dimensions in its distant areas, then the researchers would be able to use the same mass for the Higgs boson, the tweaking would not be necessary. According to Stojkovic, if the theory proves to be true, then the entire conception about the Universe will change. The astronomers and the scientists have had the same beliefs regarding the Universe for more than 30 years, and now this new discovery might prove that they were wrong the entire time.
He believes that because there are so many uncertainties about the Universe and about several of its aspects, the theory might be true. Even if his theory is not true, he believes that there is something wrong in the theories which are used nowadays, and which have been present for decades now. He will not be able to apply his test until various years from now, as the deployment of LISA takes lots of time. They conducted various experiments which indicated that certain areas from the Universe might indeed have fewer dimensions in certain regions. The scientists observed that the main energy wave of cosmic ray particles, which is believed to have been present in the beginning when the Universe was formed, is in two dimensions.11
