Fourth Dimension Breakthrough: New Metamaterial Controls Energy Waves

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.

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. 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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