extra dimensions – Quanta Magazine https://www.quantamagazine.org Illuminating science Mon, 16 Sep 2024 14:10:47 -0400 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.2 In a ‘Dark Dimension,’ Physicists Search for the Universe’s Missing Matter https://www.quantamagazine.org/in-a-dark-dimension-physicists-search-for-missing-matter-20240201/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/in-a-dark-dimension-physicists-search-for-missing-matter-20240201/#respond Thu, 01 Feb 2024 15:40:30 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=134877 The post In a ‘Dark Dimension,’ Physicists Search for the Universe’s Missing Matter first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> When it comes to understanding the fabric of the universe, most of what scientists think exists is consigned to a dark, murky domain. Ordinary matter, the stuff we can see and touch, accounts for just 5% of the cosmos. The rest, cosmologists say, is dark energy and dark matter, mysterious substances that are labeled “dark” partly to reflect our ignorance about their true nature.

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/in-a-dark-dimension-physicists-search-for-missing-matter-20240201/feed/ 0 The Journey to Define Dimension https://www.quantamagazine.org/a-mathematicians-guided-tour-through-high-dimensions-20210913/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/a-mathematicians-guided-tour-through-high-dimensions-20210913/#respond Mon, 13 Sep 2021 15:39:28 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=108649 The post The Journey to Define Dimension first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> The notion of dimension at first seems intuitive. Glancing out the window we might see a crow sitting atop a cramped flagpole experiencing zero dimensions, a robin on a telephone wire constrained to one, a pigeon on the ground free to move in two and an eagle in the air enjoying three. But as we’ll see, finding an explicit definition for the concept of dimension and pushing its boundaries has...

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/a-mathematicians-guided-tour-through-high-dimensions-20210913/feed/ 0 The Map of Mathematics https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-map-of-mathematics-20200213/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-map-of-mathematics-20200213/#respond Thu, 13 Feb 2020 17:30:36 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=79431 The post The Map of Mathematics first appeared on Quanta Magazine

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-map-of-mathematics-20200213/feed/ 0 How the Universe Got Its Bounce Back https://www.quantamagazine.org/big-bounce-models-reignite-big-bang-debate-20180131/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/big-bounce-models-reignite-big-bang-debate-20180131/#respond Wed, 31 Jan 2018 19:39:26 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=55487 The post How the Universe Got Its Bounce Back first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> Humans have always entertained two basic theories about the origin of the universe. “In one of them, the universe emerges in a single instant of creation (as in the Jewish-Christian and the Brazilian Carajás cosmogonies),” the cosmologists Mario Novello and Santiago Perez-Bergliaffa noted in 2008. In the other, “the universe is eternal, consisting of an infinite series of cycles (as in the...

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/big-bounce-models-reignite-big-bang-debate-20180131/feed/ 0 Moonshine Master Toys With String Theory https://www.quantamagazine.org/moonshine-master-toys-with-string-theory-20160804/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/moonshine-master-toys-with-string-theory-20160804/#comments Thu, 04 Aug 2016 16:08:31 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=27906 The post Moonshine Master Toys With String Theory first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> After the Eyjafjallajökull volcano erupted in Iceland in 2010, flight cancellations left Miranda Cheng stranded in Paris. While waiting for the ash to clear, Cheng, then a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard University studying string theory, got to thinking about a paper that had recently been posted online. Its three coauthors had pointed out a numerical coincidence connecting far-flung...

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