14 DAY TRIAL // Time is not the fourth dimension of spacetime, nor is it an absolute quantity that flows on its own, Slovenian researchers say. Instead, they propose that time is simply a measure denoting the numerical order of change.
This new theory is based on the fact that not even famed physicist Albert Einstein believed that time (t) was the fourth dimension. In other words, when we look at space, we shouldn't see three dimensions (3D) plus time, but rather four dimensions (4D).
According to the new proposal, time can only be used to measure numerical order of material change, and not to explain other phenomena that go on in the material world. The new study was conducted by investigators at the Scientific Research Center Bistra (SRCB), in Ptuj.
By looking at the Universe from this perspective, the team argues, explaining quantum information transfers become a lot easier. A 4D space provides the best possible medium for such transfers.
One of the primary arguments in the new proposal is that time has absolutely no primary physical existence. It is, in fact, simply a mathematical value, that we use to measure the frequency and speed of an object.
In this respect, using t as the value of a X-axis on a graph is incorrect, since we cannot measure time itself. The idea is expanded on in two research papers, one of which was published in the journal Physics Essays. The other will appear in an upcoming issue of the same magazine.
The proposal basically calls for a paradigm shift in this area of research. The studies argue experts should regard spacetime as having four dimensions of space. The main implication of this is that the Universe is truly timeless, Daily Galaxy reports.
“Minkowski space is not 3D + T, it is 4D. The point of view which considers time to be a physical entity in which material changes occur is here replaced with a more convenient view of time being merely the numerical order of material change,” the team writes in the published paper.
The work was conducted by SRCB investigators Amrit Sorli, Davide Fiscaletti, and Dusan Klinar.
“This view corresponds better to the physical world and has more explanatory power in describing immediate physical phenomena: gravity, electrostatic interaction, information transfer,” they add.
“The idea of time being the fourth dimension of space did not bring much progress in physics and is in contradiction with the formalism of special relativity,” Sorli goes on to say.
“We are now developing a formalism of 3D quantum space based on Planck work. It seems that the Universe is 3D from the macro to the micro level to the Planck volume, which per formalism is 3D,” the investigator adds.
“In this 3D space there is no ‘length contraction,’ there is no ‘time dilation.’ What really exists is that the velocity of material change is ‘relative’ in the Einstein sense,” he concludes.