Timed Space Just Won't Fit

Physicists have buttressed a long held theory that space and time are not part of reality, at least how we normally define them. It would seem that the quantum theory that particles only interact with other particles that are adjacent to them breaks down under certain conditions involving gravity. This has made the role of time and space in questionable, suggesting that neither is a building block.

This theory has gained some traction with the discovery of the amplituhedron, a multi-faceted jewel-like construct that redefines the interaction of particles. This construct has been used for years to interpret particle interaction, but using it required mountains of diagrams drawn to interact with one another and trace the many interactions and possible interactions.

Recently two knuckleheads from Illinois . . . and by knuckleheads I mean award winning physicists Stephen Parke and Tommy Taylor . . . managed to simplify the process into one simple geometric equation which now allows for a much more rapid solution to what have been extraordinarily long equations. It still has not solved the gravity problem of course, but with the simplified approach it is, they say a matter of time or space . . . both really.

The world just changed, and we missed it.

Read the fantastic Quanta Magazine article by Natalie Wolchover.

We are one step closer.