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    Home»Technology»Fourth Dimension Breakthrough: New Metamaterial Controls Energy Waves
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    Fourth Dimension Breakthrough: New Metamaterial Controls Energy Waves

    By University of Missouri-ColumbiaAugust 3, 20239 Comments3 Mins Read
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    Energy Magnetism Waves Concept
    Scientists at the University of Missouri have created a synthetic 4D metamaterial that can control energy waves on solid surfaces, potentially leading to advancements in quantum mechanics, quantum computing, and earthquake mitigation.

    Scientists engineered a synthetic metamaterial to direct mechanical waves along a specific path, which adds an innovative layer of control to 4D reality, otherwise known as the synthetic dimension.

    Everyday life involves the three dimensions or 3D — along an X, Y, and Z axis, or up and down, left and right, and forward and back. But, in recent years scientists like Guoliang Huang, the Huber and Helen Croft Chair in Engineering at the University of Missouri, have explored a “fourth dimension” (4D), or synthetic dimension, as an extension of our current physical reality.

    Creation of a New Synthetic Metamaterial

    Recently, Huang together with a team of scientists in the Structured Materials and Dynamics Lab at the MU College of Engineering, achieved a significant breakthrough. They successfully created a new synthetic metamaterial with 4D capabilities. This includes the ability to control energy waves on the surface of a solid material. These energy waves, referred to as mechanical surface waves, are fundamental to how vibrations travel along the surface of solid materials.

    Synthetic Metamaterial With 4D Capabilities
    A rendering of the new synthetic metamaterial with 4D capabilities designed by scientists at the University of Missouri. It includes the ability to control energy waves on the surface of a solid material. Credit: Guoliang Huang/University of Missouri

    While the team’s discovery, at this stage, is simply a building block for other scientists to take and adapt as needed, the material also has the potential to be scaled up for larger applications related to civil engineering, micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) and national defense uses.

    Guoliang Huang
    Guoliang Huang. Credit: Guoliang Huang/University of Missouri

    The Potential of 4D Synthetic Materials

    “Conventional materials are limited to only three dimensions with an X, Y, and Z axis,” Huang said. “But now we are building materials in the synthetic dimension, or 4D, which allows us to manipulate the energy wave path to go exactly where we want it to go as it travels from one corner of a material to another.”

    This groundbreaking discovery, called ‘topological pumping,’ could potentially lead to advancements in quantum mechanics and quantum computing. This is due to the development of higher dimension quantum-mechanical effects it might allow.

    Potential Application in Earthquake Mitigation

    “Most of the energy — 90% — from an earthquake happens along the surface of the Earth,” Huang said. “Therefore, by covering a pillow-like structure in this material and placing it on the Earth’s surface underneath a building, and it could potentially help keep the structure from collapsing during an earthquake.”

    The work builds upon previous research conducted by Huang and his colleagues. Their earlier studies demonstrated how a passive metamaterial could control the path of sound waves as they travel from one corner of a material to another.

    Reference: “Smart patterning for topological pumping of elastic surface waves” by Shaoyun Wang, Zhou Hu, Qian Wu, Hui Chen, Emil Prodan, Rui Zhu and Guoliang Huang, 28 July 2023, Science Advances.
    DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adh4310

    The study was published in Science Advances, a journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). It is supported by grants from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the Army Research Office.

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    Materials Science Metamaterials Popular University of Missouri-Columbia
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    9 Comments

    1. Kerry on August 3, 2023 12:29 pm

      Amazing progress in new materials across he globe. Seems like everyday some new materials technology is revealed. Must have finally decoded the alien technology we have been studying for the last 70years….

      Reply
    2. Jose 369 Ribeiro YouTube on August 3, 2023 8:55 pm

      Bravo

      Reply
    3. Charles Ford on August 4, 2023 5:03 am

      Could this technology help in building the wrap drive of a space space, especially in directing the negative energy of the Alcubierre drive to the back of the spaceship, in other words, an enlarge energy-density field, such negative energy would be in the form of exotic matter

      Reply
    4. Jacob on August 4, 2023 4:57 pm

      How convenient that all these breakthroughs with 4th dimensional energy and superconductors are coming out right as ufo disclosure is happening. Folks, they’ve known about all this stuff for years in the shadows. The fake trickle of “new” discoveries becoming public is hilarious. Cat’s out of the bag IMO

      Reply
    5. Kollins Olson on August 5, 2023 5:44 am

      On the hunt for realities only understood from a voided perspective, wandered into, out of curiosity, the thirsty for knowledge thought to outway any tangable item, the information begins to stack as the brain begins to cram. The unfathomable capabilities of an unlimited structure of understanding. “I finally figured it out… It doesn’t make any sense.”

      Reply
    6. C. Leal on August 6, 2023 9:03 pm

      The military is involved. They will find a way to pervert it’s use and bring destruction and death.

      Reply
    7. David on August 7, 2023 9:23 am

      I think calling this “4D” is taking a lot of creative license with the language of dimensionality in a way that’s confusing. Most contemporary physical theories construe the dimensionality of the world as 3+1: 3 spatial dimensions plus one temporal. This discovery seems more like a new way to navigate or manipulate the spatial dimensions instead of a new dimension altogether. Is this a proposed 3+1+1? 4+1? I’m not even sure What the claim actually is, or how this squares with physics more broadly.

      Reply
    8. Julia on August 9, 2023 7:28 pm

      It’s just some more crap. I mean , who wants to live in a synthetic dimension . They’ve been hogging knowledge & material to themselves while we live in squalor of am unjust corrupt system . They’ve been ignoring us putting band-aids on everything & for what . I think they think this synthetic stuff along with synthetic ufo’s & robots are going to be like saviors to us . Are they going to hurt us with the so called new energy or perhaps it’ll be something we could us against the robots if they turn against humanity .

      Reply
    9. Keith Lively on August 15, 2023 3:18 pm

      Well this material right here will lead to the development of wire less circuits. Like how they describe the inside of a UFO that doesn’t have any wiring only touch surfaces!

      Reply
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