Physics formulas describe actions that can be observed, but behind them there may be factors that are not immediately evident.
Columbia University researchers discovered alternative physics through an artificial intelligence program . A way to try to give an explanation to the physics formulas describing actions that have not undergone obvious factors. The new AI program only analyzed a fraction of physical phenomena. It does not intend to explain the universe by inventing a new type of physics or to try to improve already famous formulas. his goal is something else.
The study team wanted to find out if there were any new variables by explaining why new complicated phenomena emerged . And here a new physics emerged, called alternative. How did AI find new physics? And another question: what are the minimum fundamental variables needed to describe what’s going on? It is explained by the video of an oscillating pendulum with four state variables involved: angle and angular velocity of each of the two pendulums. The answer is that the phenomenon would require 4.7 variables to be explained.
We tried to correlate the other variables with anything we could think of: angular and linear velocities, kinetic and potential energy, and various combinations of known quantities. But nothing seemed to match perfectly… we still don’t understand the mathematical language he is speaking.
Boyuan Chen, a software researcher who led the work
The study team then went on to show the AI more videos. The first had a wavy “air dancer” arm that blew in the wind (with eight variables identified by the AI). Then also the shots of the lava lamps gave eight variables. A flames cutscene had 24 variables. In short, each time the variables were unique.
Without any prior knowledge of the underlying physics, our algorithm uncovers the intrinsic dimension of observed dynamics and identifies candidate sets of state variables.
researchers
Therefore, in the future, AI could be a valid aid for the identification of the variables underlying new concepts still unknown to man.
- An AI Just Independently Discovered Alternate Physics (sciencealert.com)