For the first time, physicists have built a two-dimensional experimental system that allows them to study the physical properties of materials that were theorized to exist only in four-dimensional space. An international team of researchers from Penn State, ETH Zurich in Switzerland, the University of Pittsburgh, and the Holon Institute of Technology in Israel have demonstrated that the behavior of particles of light can be made to match predictions about the four-dimensional version of the “quantum Hall effect” – a phenomenon that has been at the root of three Nobel Prizes in physics – in a two-dimensional array of “waveguides”.

A paper describing the research appeared on January 4, 2018 in the journal Nature along with a paper from a separate group from Germany that shows that a similar mechanism can be used to make a gas of ultracold atoms exhibit four-dimensional quantum Hall physics as well.

“When it was theorized that the quantum Hall effect could be observed in four-dimensional space”, said Mikael Rechtsman, assistant professor of physics and an author of the paper, “it was considered to be of purely theoretical interest because the real world consists of only three spatial dimensions; it was more or less a curiosity. But, we have now shown that four-dimensional quantum Hall physics can be emulated using photons – particles of light – flowing through an intricately structured piece of glass – a waveguide array”. (1)

We can emulate anything.

Not only things which exist but also things which do not.

Not only things which do not exist but also things which cannot exist.

Three dimensions… Four dimensions…

Existing… Not existing…

Under the proper circumstances, anything can exist. And, thus, anything can be emulated. Are some things more “real” than others? An emulation cannot answer that. Science cannot answer that question either; it is based on hypotheses and emulations, so how can it question its own self? For science anything could potentially exist. And a scientific model could be created for anything. There is nothing fundamental ruling out the possibility of something existing. This is a very important and powerful key foundation pillar of science and we always tend to forget it.

Existence cannot be limited.

Its potential is always there.

In unicorns. (they exist by the way – see here)

In parallel universes. (see quantum mechanics)

In love… In evil…

What will be, already is.

It is up to you.

Choose wisely.

There is only a limited number of things you can emulate…