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Study: Our 3D Universe Could Have Originated From a 4D Black Hole

New submitter TaleSlinger sends this quote from Nature: "Afshordi's team realized that if the bulk universe contained its own four-dimensional (4D) stars, some of them could collapse, forming 4D black holes in the same way that massive stars in our Universe do: they explode as supernovae, violently ejecting their outer layers, while their inner layers collapse into a black hole. In our Universe, a black hole is bounded by a spherical surface called an event horizon. Whereas in ordinary three-dimensional space it takes a two-dimensional object (a surface) to create a boundary inside a black hole, in the bulk universe the event horizon of a 4D black hole would be a 3D object — a shape called a hypersphere. When Afshordi's team modeled the death of a 4D star, they found that the ejected material would form a 3D brane surrounding that 3D event horizon, and slowly expand. The authors postulate that the 3D universe we live in might be just such a brane — and that we detect the brane's growth as cosmic expansion. 'Astronomers measured that expansion and extrapolated back that the Universe must have begun with a Big Bang — but that is just a mirage,' says Afshordi."

3 of 337 comments (clear)

  1. Sorry by krovisser · · Score: 5, Funny

    Turtles all the way down.

  2. Uhhh... what did he just say to us? by pspahn · · Score: 5, Funny

    So whatever a 4D star is, when it explodes there is a 3D layer that represents the event horizon. We live in this layer. One side of the layer is a 4D black hole, and the other side of the layer is some other kind of nothingness. Yeah?

    Is there someone here I can offer monetary compensation to for them to comprehend this summary for me?

    --
    Someone flopped a steamer in the gene pool.
    1. Re:Uhhh... what did he just say to us? by pspahn · · Score: 5, Funny

      All the way up to 20D, at which point the DM's mother informs him it's time for dinner (corndogs and mac'n'cheese yet again).

      --
      Someone flopped a steamer in the gene pool.