Two different research teams have been able to glimpse this fourth dimension through an effect known as the Quantum Hall Effect.
Since such experiments bend the laws of physics, a good part of them are theoretical and very complex, using the infamous quantum mechanics.
The Experiments
The researchers from the two teams worked with specially designed configurations in lower dimensions to be able to conjecture this fourth spatial dimension.
In other words, in the same way that a 3D object casts a 2D shadow, scientists were able to observe a “3D shadow” potentially cast by a 4D object, even if they couldn’t directly see the 4D object itself.
Thanks to some very advanced calculations, which won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2016, we know that the Quantum Hall Effect points to the existence of a fourth spatial dimension.
What these new experiences do is give us a picture of the effects that this fourth dimension could have.
Settings
The European team’s setup involved atoms cooled near absolute zero and placed in a 2D lattice using lasers.
With the addition of extra lasers, the team was able to implement a “quantum bomb” to excite the trapped atoms and move them.
Slight variations in these motions were detected by the researchers, exactly as expected by the 4D Quantum Hall Effect, which raises the possibility that a fourth spatial dimension may somehow be accessed.
The American experiment also used lasers, this time to control the light, which flowed through a block of glass. By manipulating light to simulate the effect of an electric field on charged particles, again the consequences of a 4D Hall Effect could be observed.
The Search Continues
The studies are promising, but preliminary.
We can’t physically access this 4D world, we’re stuck in 3D space, but researchers believe that quantum mechanics can somehow give us a view of it, thus increasing our limited understanding of the universe.
Think about it: it’s as if we were video game characters from a 2D platform, and suddenly we could access a 3D part of the game. Our perspective would remain in 2D, but as we moved, we would see distortions as the 3D world was “folded” into a 2D plane.
The same kind of distortions were seen in these experiments, suggesting a larger 4D world than we can see now.
The researchers still have a lot of work ahead of them. Although we can’t take a trip to this fourth spatial dimension, at least we have more evidence that it’s there, and a better idea of how it works.
