Physicists discover 'clearest evidence yet' that the Universe is a hologram
At a black hole, Albert Einstein's theory of gravity apparently clashes
with quantum physics, but that conflict could be solved if the Universe
were a holographic projection.
| MARK GARLICK via Getty Images nature.com
Latest calculations chime with 1997 theory that
reality is only perceived as 3D and is actually a 2D projection on the
boundary of the universe
A team of physicists have provided what has been described by the
journal Nature as the “clearest evidence yet” that our universe is a
hologram.
The new research could help reconcile one of modern physics' most
enduring problems : the apparent inconsistencies between the different
models of the universe as explained by quantum physics and Einstein’s
theory of gravity.
The two new scientific papers are the
culmination of years’ work led by Yoshifumi Hyakutake of Ibaraki
University in Japan, and deal with hypothetical calculations of the
energies of black holes in different universes.
The idea of the
universe existing as a ‘hologram’ doesn’t refer to a Matrix-like
illusion, but the theory that the three dimensions we perceive are
actually just “painted” onto the cosmological horizon - the boundary of
the known universe.
If this sounds paradoxical, try to imagine a
holographic picture that changes as you move it. Although the picture is
two dimensional, observing it from different locations creates the
illusion that it is 3D.
This model of the universe helps explain
some inconsistencies between general relativity (Einstein’s theory) and
quantum physics. Although Einstein’s work underpins much of modern
physics, at certain extremes (such as in the middle of a black hole) the
principles he outlined break down and the laws of quantum physics take
over.
The traditional method of reconciling these two models has
come from the 1997 work of theoretical physicist Juan Maldacena, whose
ideas built upon string theory. This is one of the most well respected
‘theories of everything’ (Stephen Hawking is a fan) and it posits that
one-dimensional vibrating objects known as 'strings' are the elementary
particles of the universe.
Maldacena has welcomed the new research
by Hyakutake and his team, telling the journal Nature that the findings
are “an interesting way to test many ideas in quantum gravity and
string theory.
Leonard Susskind, a theoretical physicist regarded
as one of the fathers of string theory, added that the work by the
Japanese team “numerically confirmed, perhaps for the first time,
something we were fairly sure had to be true, but was still a
conjecture.”
For more information on this research, click here to read the original release.
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