This is not entirely new.
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Basically, they are creating an exceptionally high intensity optical lattice. I'd have to look more closely at their proposal - but I've long been a proponent of this type of "particle analysis" over particle accelerators.
Basically, by having your energy maxima in the optical lattice approach or exceed the Planck energy density within a given region - you should see the 'ghost particles' forced apart from each other (since they normally appear and annihilate in a quasi-ground-state) - creating matter and antimatter pairs.
Thus, it's a form of direct energy-to-matter conversion with the potential to produce a wide array of exotic material (in terms of research - since it takes the energy equivalent of the hiroshima bomb to produce a gram of matter 'from scratch' like this). Although controlling what comes out of the 'spray' or sorting it in a way as to build up meaningful quantities of it will be the real problem.
As for dimensions... not really.
The answer to dimensions lay in the open with a phenomena that has reaching implications but has been relatively ignored.
"Quantum Coherence" or "entanglement" as it used to be called is a phenomena that does apply on the macroscopic scale. Einstein stumbled upon a similar concept with relativity - but it was erroneously applied to a 'fixed' and 'unified' universe.
QM has illustrated that we live in no such objective reality. Many features of the world are decided upon when they are needed as opposed to being expressed as a physical property.
We have seen these phenomena scale to the macroscopic - we simply lack the research and resource focus to create even larger examples of this. But it will carry on to even the largest of phenomena.
Information has an entropy all of its own. The exact position of grains of sand a million years ago is impossible to determine no matter how much supercomputing you throw at the task. The information is 'lost to time' - a 'trip back in time' could see the position of grains of sand change without consequence. Grain of sand A could be in position of grain of sand ABETAKD2 and time wouldn't know the consequence.
Your G29 grandmother may have had red hair. Unless you find a journal or some record (representing an investment and appropriation of energy that is also subject to entropy) that lets you know - it is really an inconsequential part of history that can't be known because of the rate of mutation in the human genome.
This is actually kind of interesting - because it means that, when you start to reach back far enough into history - it becomes irrelevant. Exacts can't be known. The present appears to be a massive hodge-podge of everything that could have been trialed at one time (the "random walk") with the most optimal result chosen (without any single path being taken).
Which is why things like evolution both make sense but don't work in classical physics. You have to introduce QM before evolution becomes possible.
But that means the past didn't -really- exist. We exist, and therefor the past is a logical tree of what could have been.
That has very interesting implications when we begin considering the concept of space travel (which is where relativity begins to take over).
For the universe to work, there must be a preferential reference frame.
This, however, causes problems in the classic models of the 'one universe' and 'one causality.' So we have created a system of math using lorentz transformations that distort things like physical metrics of the universe in order to not break the 'one causality.'
But this system doesn't work with quantum mechanics.
Relativity requires an infinitely malleable physical universe. The lorentz transformations of physical dimensions when traveling at 0.9999999999999999 C are such that one has to begin considering the two systems 'playing together.'
At these speeds, the physical dimensions of atoms are stretched according to lorentz transformations - but from the perspective of those traveling, everything is normal. Yet, should a collision occur - the collision will represent a massive release of energy. This means that even when things 'appear normal' - energy is being 'stored' in the particles that make up the mass of the object. Eventually - you reach a point where Planck limits must be considered as these particles interact with the photons their very presence must release.
The granular 'integer' nature of the universe conflicts with the infinitely reducible 'floating point' concept of lorentz transformations.
Thus, the only conclusion is that there is a universal preferential frame of reference embedded in this granularity. But that means there can be such things as causal violation....
Unless the relativity is in causality.
Which is what "Entanglement" implies.
The grains of dust on mars have as much relevance to us as our grains of sand have to the atomic nuclei in the sun. The amount of energy that must be invested on our part to track or record the largely irrelevant grains of dust on mars are comparable to how irrelevant the location of individual water molecules in your bath tub are.
Entanglement has always been a freaky subject of physics because it implies a large degree of subjectivity and also reduces the physical world to a philosophical discussion (which runs against the instincts of nearly every physicist).
[video=youtube;iVpXrbZ4bnU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVpXrbZ4bnU[/video]
This subjectivity of causality is essentially a grand-scale double-slit experiment where the causal events of the universe become probability functions in and of themselves until some form of information about that causal chain reaches the observer.
This means that, as far as physics can be concerned, each individual consciousness (whatever the hell that is) is subject to its own unique experience of the universe that can differ from those of others (although the differences shared by those of us in constant interaction with each other are so minute that it does not prevent us from interacting with each other).
Basically - the preferential frame of reference is the 'observer' and each observer's causal experience is relative even if the physical dimensions of the universe are not.
Thus, we resolve the ridiculous idea that there exists a dimension where each and every possibility of the universe is lived out - yet we also resolve the seeming impossibility of things like entanglement.
Particles do not share information faster than the speed of light. Once we know the state of the particle - we can no longer 'interact' with anything that conflicts with that observation. Thus, the 'link' is embedded in our frame of reference.
Of course - this is all amateur speculation on my part - but it's fun stuff to dive into.
