DC Comics readers are no doubt very familiar with the 5th Dimension, the home to interdimensional menaces like Mr. Mxyzptlk and Bat-Mite who have appeared in their comics for decades now. In the comics the five dimensions are outlined as height, width, depth, time, and imagination, but according to a new study there very well could be a fifth dimension but it is uh, not that easy to summarize. As methodically written by Vice, theoretical physicists have written a paper on a “hypothetical particle that can act as a portal to a warped fifth dimension that mediates the cosmic realms of light and dark.” Just nod and smile for now, we’ll try and explain.
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“Our initial motivation was to explain the possible origin of fermion masses in theories with a warped extra dimension,” the team wrote in an email to the outlet, revealing that their study was done to seek out an “explanation” for all of dark matter in the universe. “Confirming the existence of such a new scalar particle will open an exciting path towards the possible discovery of dark matter. This will give us in particular very useful information about the possible mass range of dark matter and its interactions with the particles we know nowadays.”
This theoretical particle is potentially similar to the Higgs boson but is in fact so theoretical that it may not be able to be noticed or studied for years since we don’t have the kind of instruments needed to search for them. Should they eventually be able to map it out, find one, and research it further, then perhaps this gateway to a fifth dimension could be opened. Perhaps when that happens they’ll get trapped in a giant bookcase like set like Matthew McConaughey in the Christopher Nolan movie Interstellar.
You can read the full article over at Vice, which explains it all so much better than we can even pretend to understand. One thing we can likely guarantee is that tricking the theoretical particle into saying its own name backwards will probably not banish it back into the fifth dimension like the superman villain mentioned at the top.
It’s unclear when we’ll get to see Mr. Mxyzptlk in the pages of DC Comics or on a TV show again, but the character was recently played by comedian Thomas Lennon in the 100th episode of Supergirl (previously played by Peter Gadiot in the second season). Supergirl is set to premiere its sixth and final season later this year with the spin-off series Superman & Lois set to arrive in February. Both shows offer an opportunity to have Mxyzptlk return, perhaps today’s headlines will inspire the writers.
