Separate Dimensions In Space & Time

Now just as we’re getting to grips with time’s weirdness, one daring physicist has dropped another bombshell. “There isn’t just one dimension of time,” says Itzhak Bars of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. “There are two. One whole dimension has until now gone entirely unnoticed by us.” Does this mean we can look forward to extra hours and seconds" Or will time’s second dimension play havoc with our notions of the past, present and future" Or is Bars, in fact, a few quarks short of a proton" One thing Bars’s extra time dimension does appear to reveal is the existence of deep and unexpected connections between disparate systems, such as atoms and the expanding universe. Such connections could point the way to a “theory of everything” that unites all the physical laws of the universe into one. Even better, Bars claims his theory has true predictive power and can be tested in upcoming particle physics experiments. Physicists are no strangers to extra dimensions. For decades, theorists attempting to unify the forces of nature have been adding extra dimensions of space to their equations. As early as the 1920s, mathematicians found that moving up to four dimensions of space, instead of the three we experience, helped in their quest to reconcile electromagnetism and gravity. Later, in the 1980s, came various superstring theories, which describe the universe in terms of tiny one-dimensional strings vibrating against a backdrop of nine space dimensions, six of which are curled up so tightly we cannot see them. A decade or so on, theorists recognised the assorted string theories as different facets of a single idea called M-theory that adds yet another dimension, taking the total to 11: 10 of space and one of time. Meddling with space, at least, is fair game. So how come so few have dared to tinker with time" There are two good reasons why adding extra time dimensions makes theorists queasy. For a start, when you insert time into your equations it tends to come with a negative rather than a positive sign. A second time dimension only makes this problem more severe and leads to events happening with a negative probability, a concept which is meaningless, says Bars. Worse, it gives the green light to the idea of time travel