Prof Ventures Into New Dimension [Lisa Randall alert!]

Boston Herald.com ^ | 28 November 2005 | Paul Restuccia

[Quark2005]

I gotta honestly say, I'm the wrong one to ask (I'm a medium-energy particle experimentalist in training and anything involving quantum gravity lies well outside my area of knowledge) - I don't know enough about the specifics of this particular theory to honestly comment one way or the other, other than to comment that the limits of the Standard Model when it comes to incorporating gravity is indeed an area of true controversy in physics & that extra physical dimensions are needed to formulate any working quantum theory of gravity.

I can tell you that a good theorist I know did tell me of another line of experimental inquiry that you didn't include - some quantum gravity theories predict that Newtonian gravity breaks down at shorter & potentially measurable distances (when I last heard, the inverse square nature of gravitation has "only" been verified down to a distance of about 0.1 mm, some hypotheses predict that this scale is where classical gravity may start to break down). As far as the Randall-Sundrum theory goes in particular, though, I have no idea, unfortunately.

[Quark2005]

...their studies of electron scattering within the nucleus which lent credence to the quark model.

That's more up my alley!

[PatrickHenry]

Lemme jump in, while we're waiting for the smart guys to compose their answers. The idea of these branes is that gravitons are traveling here from the other brane, where gravity is its "normal" (much stronger) self. I get the idea that when this happens, stuff from here must go to the other brane, so as to balance the cosmic books. These arrivals and departures should be, in principle, detectable. But the other brane is thought to be so close to ours (maybe one planck length, says Lisa) that the transit time is probably negligible. So if all we can detect is that everything balances, and there's no detectable moment when we've got a shortage on its way to being compensated, then we've got a null result. But I may have this all messed up. Let's wait for the experts.

[Physicist]

Extra-dimension models in general imply higher-mode graviton resonances, corresponding to non-ground-state excitations of a graviton's Schrödinger wave function. In the (massless) ground state, one half of a graviton's Schrödinger wavelength would fit along the (invisible, orthogonal) extra dimension. (You know, the old particle-in-a-box problem from chapter 2 of whatever quantum textbook you use.) This implies the existence of a state where a full wavelength fits along that dimension, and another state with one and a half, etc. If a graviton could be kicked into one of these states by, say, a powerful enough particle collision, it would carry a momentum component along the hidden direction, which would manifest itself in our space as a mass (let the graviton itself be ever so massless in 5-dimensional reality). So as you increase the collision energy, you would see a series of gigantic resonances, occurring at the effective (i.e. 4-dimensional) masses of these states.

[RightWingAtheist]

She reminds me of both Lisa Welch (Miss September 1980) and Carina Persson (Miss August 1983).

[RightWingAtheist]

Thanks, guys!

[Physicist]

You'll need to provide more data before I concur.

[parsifal]

This is familiar to me. Back when I was an accountant, I had a "plug" account where things that didn't balance would disappear. OH MY GOD! The Creator is a CPA...

parsy, the former zen accountant.

[RightWingAtheist]

Do a Google Image search on both ladies with the safe search off. You'll get enough data to come to a conclusion :)

[RightWingAtheist]

I quit reading The American Spectator when Tom Bethell started using it to propagate Van Flandern's crank theories. Bethell also wrote the recent Politically Incorrect Guide to Science, which, judging by the cover flap, is only going to provide more ammunition to our enemies.

[Neil E. Wright]

here's your ping

[betty boop]

Thanks for the post, Patrick! I'm so glad to see that Lisa Randall takes extra dimensions/supersymmetry ito serious consideration in her work. I wish the article had provided more detail, so I guess I'll just have to buy the book!

Thanks again for posting this article.

[PatrickHenry]

Thanks again for posting this article.

It's all part of the service. Glad you like it.

[Doctor Stochastic]

That's because high resolution pictures of protons and neutrons seem to look like pawnbrokers ads.

[r9etb]

Welcome to Free Republic. After (if) you've been here a while, then perhaps you'll understand the context in which RWA made his comment.

[RightWingAtheist]

You didn't see my post#39, didn't you? Hope you've enjoyed your brief stay, retard.

[Darksheare]

Welcome to FR.

[cricket]

LOl. ..you win! IMHO, of course. . .