String Theory and 11 Dimensions
String Theory or the theory of everything is one of the most significant theories of Quantum Physics. In 1919, a German mathematician Theodor Kaluza suggested a very bold and somewhat bizarre idea that our universe has additional dimensions that we don't see. This idea had a major impact on Physics in the last century though without knowing whether it is true or false. String Theory has nothing to do at first sight with this idea of extra dimensions. String Theory tells us about the basic, fundamental, indivisible, and uncuttable constituents making up everything in the world around us.
For instance, take a pen and we want to know what this pen is made of. So, we go on a journey deep inside the object and examine the constituents. Deep inside, we come across atoms but we all know that atoms are not the end of the story. They have little electrons swarm around the central nucleus with neutrons and protons and even neutrons, protons, and electrons have sub-particles inside them called quarks and leptons. Our imagination became dormant for a long time as it was difficult to imagine anything smaller than quarks in the universe.
Here the conventional idea stops and a new idea of strings starts. According to this theory, deep inside these quark particles, there is something else that is dancing filaments of energy like vibrating strings. These strings don't produce different musical notes rather they produce different particles making up the world around us. The vibrating of strings in different frequencies produces different particles and these different particles are responsible for all the richness in the world around us.
However, studies show that String Theory doesn't work in a three or four dimensions world. It only works when there are 10 dimensions and a dimension of time. In Bosonic Theory, spacetime is 26-dimensional, in Superstring Theory, it is 10-dimensional while in M-Theory, it is 11-dimensional.
In Cern, Geneva Switzerland, a machine has been built for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). It is a machine that would send particles around the tunnel in opposite directions near the speed of light to head-on collision.
The hope is that if the collision has enough energy, it may eject some of the energy that flies off from debris from the collision from our dimension and force it into the other dimension. We will measure the amount of energy after the collision comparing it with the energy before. The drifting away energy will be calculated which will be the evidence that the extra dimensions are there.
What is Dimension?
We can't explain the universe without dimensions. In fact, it is a complicated system that continuously works and controls our universe. We measure weight in kgs and liquid in liters but we measure changes that occur in the universe with the help of dimensions.
Let's start from zero dimension. Zero dimension is a point or dot that has no depth, width, length, or height. It is called a point of nothing like our universe before the Big Bang. But if we connect this dot with another dot as shown in the picture below, then it will become the first dimension in which anything can move in the forward or back direction. Hence, anything in the first dimension can only move in two directions.
In 2 dimension world, anything can move in four directions i.e. forward, backward, right, or left direction as shown in the picture below. There is no height or depth in 2 dimension world. Snake game on mobile is an example of 2 dimension world.
We live in a world of 3 dimensions in which one can move in six directions as there is depth and height for upward and downward movement.
One dimension can change the whole system of the world and universe. If someone from 3 dimensions world goes to the world of 2 dimensions, the creature of the world of 2 dimensions will not be able to see him but he would be able to touch or move them and can even take them to show the world of 3 dimensions. So, every dimension has its own world or universe and this makes dimensions more significant.
We know the 4th dimension also exists in this world. We observe it daily but we can't see it. It is called "time". It is connected with our 3D world but for us, it works in one dimension as it moves in only a straight line. We are born, become young, and then get old but we can't reverse the order. We can't move in the backward direction. If time was 2 dimensions, then we would be able to move in a forward or backward direction.
In 5th dimension, two worlds exist in parallel in which one can live two different lives. One can become a doctor and engineer at the same time in these parallel worlds.
In 6th dimension, time becomes zero for everybody. Everyone becomes free from the restriction of time. In this dimension, time stops and one becomes small on the quantum level and can move anywhere without restrictions.
The multiverse theory explains the 7th dimension. Our universe is infinite. It is limitless. If our universe becomes a dot that works in 6 dimensions and we connect it to another infinite universe, the line or path that connects them is the 7th dimension.
In the 8th dimension, we connect the 3rd infinite universe but if there are a lot of infinite universes and it is possible to enter them by different ways and paths, it will be the 9th dimension.
In the 10th dimension, the laws of this world never work. The imagination of that heavenly world is not possible for us. There is no time. One can move freely into the first nine dimensions as nothing has physical existence in this dimension.
Thus if we want to move in every dimension, then we will have to become the size of strings which is not possible in this world.
The concept of dimensions in Islam
We have come to realize after the spin theory that we really are not even at level zero of the actual knowledge of how the universe is made up and how it works together. If we can't explain the unit of matter, then how can bigger things be explained. If someone says that a sofa is a sofa, iron is iron, a carpet is a carpet and a roof is a roof, then how you can say that the universe can't be explained. When you go deep inside the element of this sofa, then you realize that the sofa as a whole behaves like a solid but in its own making, it is not following the laws of physics. Science is the study of 3 dimensions. So, science can't explain the universe. Science even can't explain the behavior of electrons. Electrons are amazing. These incredible particles swarm around the nucleus. They disappear and reappear in the same orbit at different positions. This is unbelievable. They behave like genies. They spin in spherical ways around the nucleus, not in the way a motorcycle spins in the well. Electrons are believed to be wise living creatures. Einstein has proved that electrons have proper wisdom and intelligence. When we start watching them, they start walking in a straight line and when we close our eyes, they change their behavior. So, science is an incomplete and imperfect knowledge. Therefore, we should not test Islam with science as science can never be above Islam and every piece of knowledge is far behind the book of Allah, the Holy Quran. There are numerous things where science fails like the behavior of water molecules and the source of water, black holes, a vast storm of Jupiter which is against the law of Newton, etc. Physics never knows how nothing creates something.
When Allah says there are seven skies. Science never knows the concept of one or two skies. In Islam, humanity is always invited to look at the sky and ponder over the signs so that they can know the creator of this universe. In Surah Al Imran, Allah says, "In the creation of the heavens and the earth, and in the alteration of night and day there are signs for those who think. There are signs for people of intellect". Islam starts with Astrophysics. How did the universe start? The Holy Prophet has told us about the formation of paradise and hell and so on and so forth.
As Muslims, we know there may be many dimensions like genies watching us from a point or place where we can't see them. It means they are in a different dimension.
The Sun daily prostrates the Arsh of Allah (the throne of God) and then Allah permits the Sun to arise in the morning. We know the Arsh of Allah is above the 7th heaven whereas the Sun is in the first heaven. It means the Sun prostrates the Arsh of Allah in some other dimension otherwise how can the Sun cross the seven heavens to prostrate or it crosses the seven heavens but we can't see it in this dimension.
We feel the universe with our five senses and with the observation of these five senses, we draw the map of the universe. For instance, a canal of milk in paradise. What kind of canal will be this? We can just imagine it and our imagination depends on what we see or observe in this world. So, we imagine that it will be a canal of milk fluid that will be flowing just like a canal of water flowing in this world. It means the inhabitant of the first dimension can't imagine the 2nd dimension and the 2nd dimension can't imagine the 3rd dimension and so on and so forth. Therefore, there are implications of other dimensions that can't be explained. We also know about the portals and doors in the skies. It means there might be other dimensions.