In our universe there is a big problem with gravity. It is far weaker than the other fundamental forces and scientists cannot explain why. One proposal is that its energy is leaking into other, unknown dimensions beyond our current understanding of the cosmos. Now, using gravitational waves, scientists have shown that this is probably not the case.
In 2015, scientists announced the first ever detection of gravitational waves—ripples in spacetime first proposed by Einstein over 100 years ago. The discovery opened up a whole new field of research for scientists across the globe, allowing them to carry out experiments that were simply not possible before.
Daniel Holz and colleagues from the University of Chicago were looking for hints of extra dimensions in gravitational waves by measuring how one in particular travelled through space. They then compared this to electromagnetic waves. If there were big differences, it would suggest that gravity operates differently to other forces in the universe—potentially in dimensions beyond the four we know about (three of space and one of time).
In their study, published in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, researchers found that gravitational waves propagate through space in the same way as electromagnetic waves do, so probably aren’t leaking into other dimension.
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