Dimensional Reduction: the key to physics’ greatest mystery?
Could the secret to understanding gravity be held in reducing, not increasing, the number of dimensions?
This article is written by Sabine Hossenfelder. Sabine is a theoretical physicist specialized in quantum gravity and high energy physics. She also freelance writes about science.
“Dimension regulated the general scale of the work, so that the parts may all tell and be effective.” -Vitruvius
What if the Universe — and fundamentally, space itself — were like a pile of laundry?
Have one.
See this laundry pile? Looks just like our universe.
No?
Here, have another.
See it now? It’s got three dimensions and all.
But look again.
The shirts and towels? They’re not truly three-dimensional. They’re really crinkled and interlocked two-dimensional surfaces.
Wait.
These surfaces aren’t real, after all. It’s really one-dimensional yarn, knotted up tightly.
You ok?
Have another.
I see it clearly now. It’s everything at once, one-two-three dimensional. It just depends on how closely you look at it.
Amazing, don’t you think? What if our universe was just like that?
It doesn’t sound like a sober thought, but it’s got math behind it, so physicists think there might be something to it. Indeed the math has piled up lately. They call it “dimensional…
