Nothing can fly faster than light. This is a physics law woven into the fabric of Einstein’s special theory of relativity. The faster something happens, the closer it is to stopping time. If you go faster, you run into time reversal problems that confuse the concepts of causality.

But researchers from the University of Warsaw and the National University of Singapore in Poland have pushed the limits of relativity to create a system that doesn’t contradict existing physics and could even lead to new theories.

They came up with an “extension of special relativity” that combines three time dimensions with one space dimension (“1+3 spacetime”), as opposed to the three space dimensions and one time dimension that we are all in. formerly.

This new study adds further evidence to support the idea that, rather than create any major logical inconsistencies, objects can move much faster than light without completely violating our current laws of physics.

“There is no fundamental reason why observers moving at speeds greater than the speed of light relative to the described physical systems should not be subject to this,” says physicist Andrzej Dragan of the University of Warsaw in Poland.

This new research builds on previous work by some researchers who claimed that superluminal perspectives could help connect quantum mechanics with Einstein’s special theory of relativity—two branches of physics that currently cannot be reconciled in one overarching theory that explains gravity. We explain other forces in the same way. Particles can no longer be modeled as point objects in this framework, as we can in the more mundane three-dimensional (plus time) perspective of the universe.

Instead, to understand what observers can see and how a superluminal particle might behave, we need to turn to the underlying field theories of quantum physics. Based on this new model, superluminal objects will appear as particles expanding in space, like a bubble, unlike a wave passing through a field. On the other hand, a high-speed object will “experience” several different time scales.

However, the speed of light in vacuum will remain constant even for observers moving faster than it; this preserves one of Einstein’s fundamental principles – a principle previously thought only in terms of observers traveling slower than the speed of light. (like all of us).

“This new definition preserves Einstein’s assumption that the speed of light in vacuum is constant, even for superluminal observers,” Dragan says. “So our extended special relativity doesn’t seem like such an exaggerated idea.”

However, the researchers acknowledge that the move to the 1+3 spatio-temporal model raises some new questions, even while answering other questions. They suggest that an extension of special relativity is necessary to include faster-than-light reference frames. This may involve borrowing from quantum field theory: a combination of concepts from special relativity, quantum mechanics, and classical field theory (aimed at predicting how physical fields will interact with each other).

If physicists are right, then in the expanded theory of special relativity, all particles in the universe would have extraordinary properties. One of the questions the study raises is whether we can observe such long-term behavior, but it will take much more time and more scientists to answer.

“The simple experimental discovery of a new elementary particle is a Nobel Prize-worthy achievement and is possible in a large research group using the latest experimental methods,” says physicist Krzysztof Turzynski of the University of Warsaw.

“However, we hope to apply our results to better understand the phenomenon of spontaneous symmetry breaking associated with mass of the Higgs particle and other particles in the Standard Model, particularly in the early universe.”