What does the universe look like when it breaks the speed of light?

Recently, researchers from Poland and Singapore have proposed a new theoretical system of light that does not contradict Einstein's special theory of relativity.

Nothing can travel faster than light. It's a rule of physics in Einstein's special theory of relativity. The faster something happens, the closer the prospect of being frozen in time becomes to a standstill.

Going faster, you run into problems with reversing time, messing up the notion of causality.

But researchers from the University of Warsaw (Poland) and the National University of Singapore have now gone beyond the boundaries of relativity to come up with a system that does not contradict current physical theories, and may even pave the way for new theories, according to Sciencealert.

New research poses an idea that goes against the three-dimensional space-time theory we're all familiar with. (Photo: Sciencealert).

New research

Accordingly, the idea put forward is an 'extension of special relativity' that combines three time dimensions with a single space dimension ('1+3 space-time') . This is contrary to the three space dimensions and one time dimension theory that we are all familiar with.

Rather than creating any major logical contradictions, the new research adds further evidence, supporting the idea that objects can travel faster than light without completely violating existing laws of physics.

'There is no fundamental reason why observers moving relative to physical systems (described with velocities greater than the speed of light) should not be affected by it,' says physicist Andrei Dragan, University of Warsaw in Poland.

The new study builds on previous work by several researchers who have argued that the superluminal view could help link quantum mechanics with the mechanics of special relativity—two branches of physics that cannot be reconciled into a single overarching theory that describes gravity the same way we explain other forces.

Particles can no longer be modeled as point-like objects in this framework - the way we can in the 3D perspective of the conventional (outside-time) universe.

Instead, to understand what observers might see and how a superluminal particle might behave, researchers turn to the kinds of field theories that underpin quantum physics.

Based on this new model, superluminous objects would appear to be a particle expanding like a bubble in space – similar to a wave in a field. High-speed objects, on the other hand, would experience a number of different time signatures.

However, the speed of light in a vacuum will remain constant even for observers traveling faster than it, which preserves one of Einstein's fundamental principles - a principle previously thought of only in relation to observers traveling slower than the speed of light.

'This new definition preserves Einstein's postulate of the constancy of the speed of light in a vacuum, even for superluminal observers. So our extended special relativity doesn't seem so far-fetched an idea ,' says physicist Andrei Dragan.

New research answers many questions, but also raises new ones. (Photo: Independent).

Many questions are raised

However, the researchers admit that moving to a 1+3 spacetime model would raise some new questions, while answering others. They suggest that special relativity needs to be extended to incorporate faster-than-light reference frames.

This might involve borrowing from quantum field theory, then combining concepts from special relativity, quantum mechanics, and classical field theory (which aims to predict how physical fields interact with each other).

If physicists are right, all the particles in the universe will have unusual properties under extended special relativity.

One of the questions the study raises is whether we can observe this scaling behavior. But answering that will take a long time and more scientists.

'The experimental discovery of a new elementary particle is simply possible for a large research team using the latest experimental techniques. This achievement deserves a Nobel Prize. However, we hope to apply our results to better understand the phenomenon of spontaneous symmetry breaking, which is related to the mass of the Higgs boson and other particles in the standard model, especially in the early universe,' said physicist Krzysztof Turzyński, University of Warsaw (Poland).