LHC To Reveal Dimensions Beyond Our Own

Researchers operating the experiments on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) say that the massive particle accelerator could reveal the existence of more dimensions this year or in 2012. They explain that studies conducted there might reveal where the 96 percent of the Universe is hiding.

Despite the advanced technologies we have at our disposal to investigate the Universe, we are still only capable of seeing as little as 4 percent of the entire Cosmos. The remaining is believed to be made up of dark matter (23 percent) and dark energy (73 percent).

According to particle physicists working at the CERN facility, near the French-Swiss border, the results of particle collisions taking place at the LHC could finally reveal the existence of dimensions other than length, width and height.

Researchers there are studying how elementary particles such as protons or lead nuclei are broken apart during highly-energetic collisions, producing new states of matter such as quark-gluon plasma (QGP).

What theoreticians are proposing is that careful monitoring of these collisions could reveal particles that disappear into other dimensions, only to return to the known ones shortly afterwards. If this is true, then maybe the experts will also be able to find parallel Universes.

“The multiverse is no longer a model, it is a consequence of our models,” explains CERN particle physicst Aurelian Barrau. However, investigators fear that these Universes may be unobservable.

According to theory, they exist in a gravitational variety inside which light cannot propagate. This means that observing the structures themselves would be like trying to see a black hole. Experts could get a sense of some of its basic properties, but could never image it directly.

In brane cosmology, multiple Universes exist adjacent to each other. They influence one another through various degrees of gravitational pulls, and this is what we perceive as dark energy in our own.

While this explanation provides an elegant way out of the dark energy conundrum, there are currently no evidences available to support this point of view. This is where the LHC experiments will step in.

“The idea of multiple Universes is more than a fantastic invention – it appears naturally within several scientific theories, and deserves to be taken seriously,” Barrau explains.

Back in 1957, famed Princeton University mathematician Hugh Everett published a theory proposing that quantum mechanics would drive a single reality into a split, from which individual realities would emerge. The resulting realities would exist simultaneously.

“This is simply a way of trusting strictly the fundamental equations of quantum mechanics. The worlds are not spatially separated, but exist as kinds of 'parallel' Universes,” Barrau explains, quoted by Daily Galaxy.