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HIDING IN THE MIRROR R OR R I M E H T N I G N I D I H
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ALSO BY LAWRENCE M. KRAUSS
Atom: A Single Oxygen Atom’s Journey from the Big Bang to Life on Earth . . . and Beyond Quintessence: The Mystery of the Missing Mass Beyond Star Trek: From Alien Invasions to the End of Time The Physics of Star Trek Fear of Physics: A Guide for the Perplexed The Fifth Essence: The Search for Dark Matter in the Universe
HIDING G N I D I H IN THE E H T N I MIRROR R OR R I M THE MYSTERIOUS ALLURE OF EXTRA DIMENSIONS, F R O M P L AT O T O S T R I N G THEORY AND BEYOND
Lawrence M. Krauss
VIKING
VIKING Published by the Penguin Group Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A. Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3 (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England Penguin Ireland, 25 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd) Penguin Books Australia Ltd, 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd) Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi - 110 017, India Penguin Group (NZ), Cnr Airborne and Rosedale Roads, Albany, Auckland 1310, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd) Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England First published in 2005 by Viking Penguin, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Copyright © Lawrence M. Krauss, 2009 All rights reserved Figure on page 67: Brendan Crill, The Boomerang Collaboration. All other drawings by the author. ISBN: 1-4362-9493-2 CIP data available Set in Baskerville Book with Helvetica Neue Designed by Daniel Lagin Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
For my mother . . . at last!
There is a dimension, beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man’s fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. —Rod Serling, The Twilight Zone
CONTENTS
R E M I N I S C E N C E : A D I M E N S I O N A L L O V E A F FA I R 1. T H E P R I V I L E G E T O L I V E I N S PA C E ?
1 5
2. F R O M F R O G S ’ L E G S T O F I E L D S
16
3. T H E R OA D T O R E L AT I V I T Y
27
4. T H E F O U R T H D I M E N S I O N
35
5. D I S T U R B I N G T H E U N I V E R S E
48
6. T H E M E A S U R E O F A L L T H I N G S
60
7. F R O M F L AT L A N D T O P I C A S S O
72
8. T H E F I R S T H I D D E N U N I V E R S E : A N E X T R A D I M E N S I O N TO PHYSICS 9. T H E R E A N D B A C K A G A I N
91 105
10. C U R I O U S E R A N D C U R I O U S E R . . .
120
11. O U T O F C H A O S . . .
128
12. A L I E N S F R O M OT H E R D I M E N S I O N S
140
13. A N E N TA N G L E D K N OT
154
14. S U P E R T I M E S F O R T H E S U P E R W O R L D
173
15. M I S F O R M O T H E R
188
16. D I S F O R B R A N E W O R L D
207
17. A T H E O R Y O F N OT H I N G ?
225
EPILOGUE: TRUTH AND BEAUTY