This week–
Zeeya Merali
IF THE universe has weird extraspatial dimensions in parallel to
the 3D world we see around us,
then billion-dollar particle
accelerators may not be the only
place to find them.
So say Gergely Gabor
Barnaföldi and colleagues at the
Research Institute for Particle
and Nuclear Physics in Budapest,
Hungary, who propose that extra
dimensions may show their face
in areas of extreme gravity
around dense stars. The concept
could also solve a 25-year-old
puzzle about the origin of
mysterious particles emanating
from a distant star system.
Some string theories predict
that there are many more
dimensions than the four we
experience: the 3D world plus
time. From next year, particle
physicists hope to spot these
dimensions at the Large Hadron
Collider near Geneva, Switzerland.
Instead, Barnaföldi’s team
looked to outer space for evidence
of extra dimensions interacting
with matter. They analysed the
Cygnus X-3 binary system, in
which a normal star orbits a
second object, generally thought
to be a neutron star.
Objects in Cygnus X-3 are
under extreme gravity, which
the researchers say would
provide the necessary conditions
for extra dimensions to affect
matter. Moreover, it spews out
ultra-high-energy particles as
far as Earth, which the team say
could have been tweaked by an
extra dimension inside the
system. Astronomers believe
these high-energy particles,
dubbed “cygnets”, strike our
atmosphere and decay into muons.
Since 1981, underground detectors
on Earth have recorded sporadic
showers of muon particles
12 | NewScientist | 23 June 2007
coming from the direction of
Cygnus X-3. The cygnets are a
puzzle because no known particles
could last the 37,000-light-year
journey from Cygnus X-3 to Earth
without decaying.
Some astrophysicists have
speculated that these long-lived
cygnets may originate in a quark
star – a hypothetical star that
may form when neutron stars
collapse. If such quark stars
contained a large number of
“strange” type quarks, they might
radiate out long-lived cygnets. The
problem is that so many strange
quarks in a star would make it
collapse into a black hole.
“If we could watch these quarks,
they would seem to travel
along our three dimensions
more slowly than expected”
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Look to quark stars
for fifth dimension
According to Barnaföldi’s
team, the necessary stability
could be provided by a universespanning fifth dimension rolled
up into tiny “rings”. In most
places in the universe, this fifth
dimension would not affect
matter, but under the extreme
gravity conditions inside
Cygnus X-3 it could cause other
types of quark to behave like
strange quarks. “If we could
watch these quarks, they would
seem to travel along our three
dimensions more slowly than
expected because, at the same
time, they have to circle round
this invisible curly extra
dimension,” says team member
Peter Levai. “Effectively they
behave as strange quarks.”
Fridolin Weber, an
astrophysicist at San Diego State
University, California, likes the
proposal. “Cygnus X-3 is perfect for
searching for extra dimensions,”
he says. “It’s basically a cosmic
particle accelerator.” But he adds
that more evidence is needed to
explain the cygnets’ origin. The
work will appear in the journal
Astronomische Nachrichten. l
In past centuries it has been possible
for small nations to achieve positions in
the world quite out of proportion to
their size. They were able to do this
by their superior technical level in the
arts of peace and war.
Anyone can think of examples.
Rome, thanks to its genius for
organising, supplying and using its
armed forces, came to dominate the
ancient world. Britain, having
eliminated French competition, took
over India in the 18th and 19th
centuries. Indeed, the most surprising
thing about the British Empire at its
zenith in, say, 1900, was that it
comprised nearly 400 million
inhabitants over 12 million square
miles, yet was based in the tiny
United Kingdom.
This sort of thing will never
happen again, for a new factor has
come into power politics. That factor
is science – not just the great
accumulation of knowledge of the
physical world which has built up
in the last 100 years but also, and
particularly, the method – the
scientific method – by which it has
been acquired. This is a process of
collecting facts, designing and
executing experiments to test theories,
using rigid logical deduction and
repeating the cycle in the light of
new facts.
The only conclusion to draw from
the adoption of such a method –
although the transition may take a
little time – is that power will move
away from the relatively small,
now highly advanced nations, and
the great centres of Asia will come
into their own.
China and India will become
leading nations, perhaps eclipsing
Russia and the US, and the little
countries of Europe – Britain, Germany
and France – will sink into obscurity.
In fact, the only way to avoid this is a
United Europe: this would produce a
power that was only just first-class, but
it might have a future.
From The New Scientist, 27 June 1957
–Cygnus X-3’s extreme gravity is the key–
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