A Wibbly Wobbly, Timey Wimey Conundrum

Remember that Doctor Who theory of 'wobbly time; well turns out it just could be true

You see, scientists have made a major breakthrough

Two pillars of physics are fundamentally at odds:

Quantum mechanics describes the forces that dominate on the atomic level

And

Einstein's theory of general relativity predicts how gravity shapes cosmic events.

Both have never been proven wrong but are Mathematically Incompatible.

But Professor Jonathan Oppenheim, a physicist at University College London, is behind a radical new theory that would unify them and change the way we think about "spacetime".

Spacetime fuses the dimensions of space and time into a four-dimensional model which helps us understand things, like how different observers perceive where and when events occur.

The new "postquantum theory of classical gravity" suggests that instead of time strictly ticking away predictably,

the rate at which time flows would wobble, randomly fluctuating like the ebb and flow of a stream, creating unpredictability.

A theory put forward in BBC's Doctor Who, with the 10th Doctor (David Tennant) saying in 2007:

"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect but actually, from a non-linear, nonsubjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, time-wimey stuff."

This phrase is used throughout the series to explain the complexity of time and how humans do not really understand it.

"The rate at which time flows is changing randomly and fluctuating in time," said Oppenheim, although he clarifies that time would never actually go into reverse.

"It's quite mathematical," he added. "Picturing it in your head is quite difficult".

This proposed "wobbliness" would result in a breakdown of predictability, which, Oppenheim says, "many physicists don't like". There are even a number of fellow physicists betting against Oppenheim's theory, taking 5,000:1 odds that it will be proven correct.

A second paper, led by Dr Zach Weller-Davids at Canada's Perimeter Institute, proposes an experiment to uncover the "wobbles" in spacetime through tiny fluctuations in an object's weight.

For example, the International Bureau of Weights and Measures in France routinely weigh a 1kg mass. If fluctuations in the measurements are below a certain threshold, the theory can be ruled out.

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3D visualization of quantum fluctuations of the quantum chromodynamic

In quantum physics, a quantum fluctuation (also known as a vacuum state fluctuation or vacuum fluctuation) is the temporary random change in the amount of energy in a point in space, as prescribed by Werner Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. They are minute random fluctuations in the values of the fields which represent elementary particles, such as electric and magnetic fields which represent the electromagnetic force carried by photons, W and Z fields which carry the weak force, and gluon fields which carry the strong force.

Vacuum fluctuations appear as virtual particles, which are always created in particle–antiparticle pairs. Since they are created spontaneously without a source of energy, vacuum fluctuations and virtual particles are said to violate the conservation of energy. The disposition of this energy gap is not well-understood; some physicists believe that the energy is transferred to or from the macroscopic environment in the course of the measurement process, while others believe that the observable energy is only conserved "on average". No experiment has been confirmed as definitive evidence of violations of the conservation of energy principle in quantum mechanics, but that doesn't rule out that some newer experiments, as proposed, may find evidence of violations of the conservation of energy principle in quantum mechanics. (Wiki).

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Excerpts from a Dr Who story by Grace Piercy on BBC/The Daily Express