At the beginning of the 20th century, Albert Einstein completely changed people’s perception of time and space by revising
Two principles and special relativity
The physicist formulated this vision of the worldin the special theory of relativity in 1905 by Albert Einstein. Time and space “according to Einstein” differ only in sign in some equations.
In general, the physicist based his special theory of relativity on two assumptions: Galileo's principles of relativity and the constancy of the speed of light.
- According toGalileo's principle of relativity, the laws of mechanics are the same in allinertial reference systems. This means that the mathematical form of Newton's second and third laws does not change when moving from one inertial frame of reference to another.
- According toprinciple of constancy of the speed of light, the speed of light in void is the same in all inertial frames of reference and does not depend on the movement of light sources and receivers.
What did the scientists want to test?
The authors of the new study pay special attentionpaid attention to the first principle, which assumes that in each inertial system the same laws of physics operate and all inertial observers are equal. It is noteworthy that it is usually applied to observers who move relative to each other at speeds that are less than the speed of light. However, there is no fundamental reason why observers moving relative to the described physical systems at high speeds will not experience the same thing. This postulate became the basis of a new study.
Physicists decided to check (of course, for nowtheoretically), what will happen if we observe the world from superluminal reference systems. Perhaps this will allow the basic principles of quantum mechanics to be included in the special theory of relativity. The authors of the revolutionary hypothesis are professors Andrzej Dragan and Arthur Eckert from Oxford University.
Main Questions
Scientists wondered how they would see our worldobservers that move faster than the speed of light in a vacuum. They assumed that they would observe not only phenomena that occur spontaneously, without a deterministic cause, but also particles traveling along several paths simultaneously.
In addition, physicists believe that the concept itselftime would have been different. Thus, a superluminal world would be characterized by three time dimensions and one spatial one. At the same time, it would need to be described in the familiar language of field theory. It turns out that the presence of superluminal observers, logically, does not contradict science. This means that superluminal objects really exist. Scientists decided to check this.
The authors proceed from the conceptspace-time corresponding to our physical reality: with three spatial dimensions and one time dimension. However, from the point of view of a superluminal observer, only one dimension of this world retains the spatial character along which particles can move. The other three are dimensions of time
From the point of view of such an observer, the particle"ages" independently in each of the three times. But for us it looks like simultaneous movement in all directions of space, i.e. propagation of a quantum mechanical spherical wave associated with a particle.
An artist's idea of quantum waves. Photo: maxpixel.net
This corresponds to Huygens' principle,formulated in the 18th century, according to which each point reached by a wave becomes the source of a new spherical wave. It was originally applied only to light waves, but quantum mechanics extended it to other forms of matter.
As a result, inclusion in the descriptionsuperluminal observers requires the creation of a new definition of speed and kinematics. It preserves Einstein's postulate about the constancy of the speed of light in a vacuum, even for superluminal observers. Therefore, their extended special theory of relativity does not seem to be such an “extravagant idea,” the scientists explain.
How does this change the world?
After taking into account superluminal solutions, the world becomes non-deterministic, and particles move simultaneously along multiple trajectories, in accordance with the quantum principle of superposition.
According to the principle of determinism, there isa strict unambiguous relationship between quantities characterizing the state of a mechanical system at a given point in time, and the values of these quantities at any subsequent (or previous) point in time.
In the world of determinism, every event withnecessarily caused by antecedent, as well as by the laws of nature. The rigid determinism of processes is understood as unambiguous predetermination, that is, each effect has a strictly defined cause. As a result, according to the extended theory of relativity, our reality becomes unpredictable.
In fact, for superluminalobserver, the particle that lives according to the laws of classical mechanics ceases to make sense, and the field becomes the only quantity that can be used to describe the physical world.
The artist's idea of a fractal that reflects the fourth dimension. Photo: maxpixel.net
Until recently, it was believed thatThe principles that form the very basis of quantum theory are fundamental. However, a thought experiment by scientists showed: the justification of quantum theory using the extended theory of relativity can be generalized by the concept of four dimensions (space-time 1+3). This extension links relativity to the implications postulated by quantum field theory.
What's the result?
Thus, in extended specialAccording to the theory of relativity, all particles seem to have extraordinary properties. But does it work the other way around? Is it possible for us to find particles that are common for superluminal observers, those that move relative to us at superluminal speeds?
Alas, it's not that simple, scientists explain.The experimental discovery of a new fundamental particle alone is already a feat.However, the scientists still hope to use the results of the study to better understand the phenomena of spontaneous symmetry breaking associated with the mass of the Higgs boson and other particles in the Standard Model, especially in the early universe.
A key component of any mechanism of spontaneous symmetry breaking is the tachyon field.Perhaps it is superluminal phenomena that play a key role in the Higgs mechanism (a theory that describes how weak interaction carrier particles acquiremass).
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