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posted by martyb on Friday October 05 2018, @09:55PM   Printer-friendly
from the 4-dimensions-ought-to-be-enough-for-anybody dept.

Scientists have managed to constrain the possible number of dimensions of our universe to 3+1 (3 spatial and 1 time).
According to a new paper on Arxiv https://arxiv.org/abs/1801.08160
A recent merger of neutron stars that was observed in the visible spectrum, as well as with gravity waves, was used to determine that there are no extra dimensions for gravity to leak into. This reinforces our current models based on 3+1 to an extremely high degree of certainty and essentially rules out any theory that requires extra dimensions in order to function.

Quoting the paper:

The observation of GW170817 in both gravitational and electromagnetic waves provides a number of unique tests of general relativity. One question we can answer with this event is: Do large-wavelength gravitational waves and short-frequency photons experience the same number of spacetime dimensions? In models that include additional non-compact spacetime dimensions, as the gravitational waves propagate, they "leak" into the extra dimensions, leading to a reduction in the amplitude of the observed gravitational waves, and a commensurate systematic error in the inferred distance to the gravitational wave source....

The short of it was that there was absolutely no evidence for electromagnetism and gravity to be propagating through a different number of dimensions than the expected 3+1.

These are just some really cool and unexpected results; in my case I was a big supporter of brane theory until this result came out. Now, I don't know what to think. Gravity is too weak to make any sense at all. What do you think?


Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Saturday October 06 2018, @04:20PM (1 child)

    by Gaaark (41) on Saturday October 06 2018, @04:20PM (#745069) Journal

    Check out Quantum Inertia: does a better job than MOND.

    http://physicsfromtheedge.blogspot.com/ [blogspot.com]

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 06 2018, @05:21PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 06 2018, @05:21PM (#745100)

    I've looked at that before. It seemed to be a much better path than dark matter.

    At the very least it attempts to explain the success of MOND, as the eventual theory will need to do. The dark matter proponents instead use side channel attacks, ie try to banish people who talk about it.