96% of our universe is invisible and undetectable. Isn't that astonishing?
According to the experts, it breaks down like this: 4% is the energy and matter that creates our perceived universe. 22% is dark matter, and 74% is dark energy. How can it be that our universe, as unimaginably huge and ancient as it is, can only be four one hundredths of what's really creating the reality we're in? This is a very, very large elephant in the room for modern science.
A number of articles have been published recently suggesting that the Large Hadron Collider, when it goes on line later this year, could reveal some new insight into why most of our universe is "missing". Some suggest that the LHC's ultra-high energy conditions could even reveal information about the extra dimensions. What if both turn out to be correct? What if, as I've been saying, dark energy and dark matter turn out to be the proof that higher dimensions really do exist, and are not just mathematical constructs existing solely in the minds of theorists?
"No matter what dark matter and dark energy are, these two phenomena are likely not independent of each other." - Dr HongSheng Zhao, of the University of St. Andrew's School of Physics and Astronomy, commenting on his recent papers published in Astrophysical Journal Letters and Physics Review.
It's All About Gravity
Gravity is a bending of spacetime. Gravity is the only force that exerts itself across the extra dimensions. Gevin Giorbran described gravity as coming from the grouping order of our universe. Randall and Sundrum suggest that gravity is a localized effect, and that in other regions of the higher dimensions gravity would have different values, and create other universes completely different from our own. I believe these are all ideas that tie into my way of visualizing how our reality is constructed.
When quantum computing expert Seth Lloyd asks us to think of the big bang as being the very first binary yes/no, his ideas relate strongly to Giorbran's idea of grouping order - out of all possible states, a fluctuation creates the initial conditions, and a particular universe is born. Other universes with different basic physical laws would be born out of different initial conditions, different groupings, all of which exist as potential. Information Equals Reality.
What does this have to do with dark matter and dark energy? Gravity. Gravity, when exerted from the dimensions above the fifth, can become a repulsive force: think of a first dimensional line, think of the third dimension, and you can imagine how an attractive force from the third dimension would appear to be pulling that first dimension from every side. But the attractive force of gravity, for us, comes from the fifth dimension: when 4D spacetime is bent, what is it being bent through? The fifth dimension, where Kaluza proved that the field equations of gravity and light are united.
It's All About Information
In the biggest picture of all, information equals reality. The mystery that confronts science is that we can't see where the dark matter that has kept our universe from flying apart too quickly, and the dark energy that now causes our universe's expansion to accelerate, are coming from. I believe that's because they come from the dimensions above spacetime, and that thinking of those highest dimensions as being weighted towards the "information" side of the information/reality equation makes it easier for us to imagine how this could be true.
Enjoy the journey,
Rob Bryanton
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3 comments:
As a layman, it always seemed to me that dark matter and energy could very well be the parts of the universe that we lack the perceptual tools to observe and identify, i.e. other dimensions.
What about the possibility that DM and DE are the shadows of alternate universes? Perhaps as the universe goes through its cycles, more alternate universes are created and Dark Energy and Matter grow and expand. Or perhaps it's just a more static field of universes rubbing up against each other?
These are purely the intuitive and marginally informed speculations of a non-scientist, so take them for what they're worth.
Absolutely! And the "lumpiness" of dark matter which scientists are discovering more and more about would (I would say) further confirm that idea. As I propose in my song "The Unseen Eye", the attractive force of dark matter comes from the "many worlds of possibility that are just around the corner in time". Likewise, in my book I advance the idea that the repulsive force of dark energy comes from other nearby universes that are, like our own universe, constrained within a seven-dimensional brane.
Whether all of this is alternate universes, or just other ways of organizing the information that becomes reality, is another way of thinking about all this.
Thanks for writing!
Rob
>Whether all of this is alternate universes, or just other ways of organizing the information that becomes reality, is another way of thinking about all this.<
Perhaps it's both? Or a multiplicity of factors, known, unknown and newly suspected, manifest comprehensively throughout.
Much like the debate about the nature of light in years past, (particles vs. waves) if we take the 'vs.' out of the picture we may get closer to the answers we're looking for.
R. Buckminster Fuller always sought to take the positive/negative notion off the table. He suspected that the elementary interactions of the universe were, at minimum, 'six-fold'.
Patterns of energy, matter and information may all dovetail neatly in ways we never imagined and as we learn more, their inter-relationships and connectedness will become more apparent.
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