Study: Simulation Suggests Universe a Hologram

String theory

A team of physicists has provided some of the clearest evidence yet that our Universe could be just one big projection.

In 1997, theoretical physicist Juan Maldacena proposed1 that an audacious model of the Universe in which gravity arises from infinitesimally thin, vibrating strings could be reinterpreted in terms of well-established physics. The mathematically intricate world of strings, which exist in nine dimensions of space plus one of time, would be merely a hologram: the real action would play out in a simpler, flatter cosmos where there is no gravity.

Maldacena's idea thrilled physicists because it offered a way to put the popular but still unproven theory of strings on solid footing — and because it solved apparent inconsistencies between quantum physics and Einstein's theory of gravity. It provided physicists with a mathematical Rosetta stone, a 'duality', that allowed them to translate back and forth between the two languages, and solve problems in one model that seemed intractable in the other and vice versa. But although the validity of Maldacena's ideas has pretty much been taken for granted ever since, a rigorous proof has been elusive.

Comments

[Drave Robber]

A simulation that suggests trolls and goblins exist costs how many bucks a month to play?

[Zombie Jimbo]

$1.1 billion /month. Take the free trial if you can.

[Fist of Etiquette]

We're all... UNDER THE DOME! Good thing I bought extra propane.

[TGD]

String "theory" is just an unproven conjecture that predicts nothing. There is no evidence for cosmic strings either. String theory has been hyped for tree decades now as the "theory of everything" that would unite general relativity and quantum mechanics. The results received thus far at the LHC at CERN have shot down most of the ST and Supersymmetry hype. Reporters should do more research on the topic before just repeating these highly speculative pronouncements.