Could the universe be an expanding 3D membrane?

Question

Expanding in a 4D membrane (not time)? I have some understanding of differential geometry, but its been awhile. It seems to me if you consider the universe an expanding elastic membrane, it might help understand how gravitational mass and inertial mass might be connected.

Answer 1

11D is easy to picture

think of a horse.. its a special horse... he can tap-dance.

Clop Clop Clop.... Clop Clop Clop....

now, send him into a mine-field.

BOOOOOM!

poor horsie is now in tiny pieces.

let's imagine that he can still dance, tho...

Clop Clop <drip> Clop

THAT is what 11D looks like

Answer 2

"could..."

Yes it could.  We have no way to prove or disprove it.

However, the latest approach is to make it a subspace of an 11-dimension Universe, not just 4.

Answer 3

what would 11-d look like anyway?

Answer 4

Picturing 11D space is easy, as demonstrated by some mathematician whose name I've forgotten. Just imagine n-dimensional space, and then set n=11 :-P

Answer 5

I have heard that the universe could be a 3D membrane expanding into a 11D realm.  It is an interesting thing about hidden dimensions. We live in a realm of 3 large unfolded dimensions plus time while the remaining 7 or 8 dimensions appear to be curled up into very small dimensions according to M-theory.  All 11 dimensions, as I understand it, are expressed in the various foldings of the Calabi-Yau shape, little 11 dimension configuration at every point in our X,Y,Z,t space-time. In fact, according to Brian Greene, the Calabi-Yau shapes add stability to our 4D reality; that, as we move through our everyday 4D world, we literally move through everyone of of the 11 dimensions of the Calabi-Yau shape at every point in space and time. Because the Calabi-Yau shapes are so very, tiny, we never notice the effect.

In his: The Fabric of the COSMOS, page 386, he says: ("... the entirely of the spacetime. Ours may be a braneworld."

"The messenger particle of gravity---the graviton---is among the lowest-energy string vibrational patterns, and the strength of the gravitational force it communicates is proportional to the length of the string. Since gravity is such a weak force, the string's length must be tiny; calculations show that it must be within a factor of a hundred or so of the Planck length for the string's graviton vibrational pattern to communicate a gravitational force with the observed strength.  ....  ... as more energy is pumped into a string, at first it will vibrate more and more frantically. But after a certain point, additional energy ... will cause the string's length to increase, and there's no limit to how long it can grow.  By pumping enough energy into a string ... make it grow to macroscopic size.  ...can't do this with today's technology ....  When it comes to large three-branes ....  A three-brane has three dimensions, so if it were large---perhaps infinitely large---it would fill all three big spatial dimensions ... a large three-brane would occupy all the space of which we're aware.  That raises an intriguing possibility. Might we, right now, be living within a three-brane? ....  ... might everything we know exist within a three-dimensional screen---a three-brane---that itself resides within the higher-dimensional universe of string/M-theory?  ... so called braneworld scenario ...."

page 393: "But if the electromagnetic force is confined to our three-brane, our three space dimensions, it is unable to probe the extra dimensions regardless of their size. Photons cannot escape our dimensions, enter the extra dimensions, and then travel back to our eyes or equipment allowing us to detect the extra dimensions, even if they were large as the familiar space dimensions. ... It is not necessarily that the extra dimensions are extremely small. They could be big. We don't see them because of the way we see. We see by using the electromagnetic force (light), which is unable to access any dimensions beyond the three we know about. .... ... gravity ....  Mathematical analyses of the braneworld scenario ... gravitons arise from the vibrational patterns of closed strings ....  And closed strings---strings with no endpoints---are not trapped by branes. They are as free to leave a brane as they are to roam on or through it. .... Through the gravitational force, we could both influence and be influenced by the extra dimensions.  Gravity ... our sole means for interacting beyond our three space dimensions.  ....")

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What if tightly folded 7 or 8 curled up dimensions are an illusion?  What if beings living in what we perceive as curled up dimensions, actually live in large dimensions, but view our 4 dimension realm as the ones that are curled up into tiny spaces?  It could be a type of quantum duality.

Answer 6

according to string theory (which really is a theory and has never had anything testable about it, let alone been tested) could imply that the universe is a 4D membrane expanding into a greater 11D space.  

But the math for that is beyond me.