We live in a three-dimensional universe with three spatial dimensions and one additional time. However, the experiments of two groups of scientists showed that the presence of the fourth spatial dimension is indeed possible and it is not limited to simple directions up and down, left and right, as well as forward and backward.
It should be immediately taken into account that such conclusions contradict the well-known laws of physics, were based on very complex calculations, partly theoretical experiments and using the laws of quantum mechanics.
By comparing the results of observation of two specially created two-dimensional media, two independent teams of scientists from Europe and the United States were able to find a way into the fourth spatial dimension, generating the so-called quantum Hall effect - the phenomenon of the conductivity of a two-dimensional gas at low temperatures in strong magnetic fields.
“Physically, we do not have 4-dimensional space, but we can achieve 4-dimensional quantum Hall effect with a low-dimensional system because the high-dimensional system is encoded in its complex structure,” says Makael Rechtsman, professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
"We may be able to come up with new physics in a higher dimension and then create devices that have this advantage in the lower dimensions."
In other words, 3D objects cast 2D shadows from which you can guess the shape of these objects. Observing some real physical three-dimensional systems, we can understand something about their four-dimensional nature, since, according to physicists, three-dimensional objects can be shadows of four-dimensional objects that appear in lower dimensions. All this can lead to some new fundamental discoveries in science.
Thanks to very sophisticated calculations, for which the Nobel Prize was awarded in 2016, we now know that the quantum Hall effect indicates the existence of a fourth dimension in space. The latest experiments by two teams of physicists, published in the journal Nature, give us an example of the effects this fourth dimension can have.
A European team of scientists cooled the atoms to near absolute zero and used lasers to place them in a two-dimensional lattice. By applying a quantum "pump" to excite trapped atoms, physicists have noticed small variations in motion that correspond to manifestations of the 4D quantum Hall effect, indicating that this fourth dimension can be accessed.
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The American team of physicists also used lasers, but to control the light passing through the glass block. By simulating the effect of an electric field on charged particles, scientists were also able to observe the effects of the 4D quantum Hall effect.
According to scientists, both experiments complement each other perfectly.
Of course, we do not have physical access to this four-dimensional world (since we are trapped in three-dimensional space), but scientists believe that through quantum mechanics we can learn more about four-dimensional space and expand our limited knowledge of the universe.
For clarity, we recommend watching the video below. It shows how a character from a 2D platformer suddenly finds himself in a 3D world. According to our perspective, it will seem to us that we are still in a two-dimensional world, but as we move in it we will see some distortions of space, since the three-dimensional world will be superimposed on the two-dimensional plane. Scientists have seen similar distortions in the experiments described above. It was they who indicated the existence of a four-dimensional space, which we cannot see physically, but the effects of which are superimposed on our three-dimensional plane.
Despite the fact that physically we cannot get into four-dimensional space, we have received evidence of its existence and a clearer picture of how it works. Scientists, in turn, want to use the results of these observations for more detailed analysis. Who knows, perhaps in the course of further work they will be able to make other discoveries.
Nikolay Khizhnyak