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A unique experiment at the U.S. Department of Energy's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory has started collecting data about whether we exist in a hologram.

Called the Holometer, the experiment will test a theory that everything in our universe is 3D.

Experts likely the theory to us being characters on a television show who do not know that their seemingly 3D world exists only on a 2D screen.

The information about everything in our universe could actually be encoded in tiny packets in two dimensions, the researchers say - and this laser experiment, called the Holometer, could prove it.

HOW IT WILL WORK

The instrument testing these limits is Fermilab's Holometer, or holographic interferometer, the most sensitive device ever created to measure the quantum jitter of space itself.

Now operating at full power, the Holometer (below) uses a pair of interferometers placed close to one another. 

Each one sends a one-kilowatt laser beam (the equivalent of 200,000 laser pointers) at a beam splitter and down two perpendicular 40-meter arms. 

The light is then reflected back to the beam splitter where the two beams recombine, creating fluctuations in brightness if there is motion. 

Researchers analyze these fluctuations in the returning light to see if the beam splitter is moving in a certain way – being carried along on a jitter of space itself. 

The information about everything in our universe could actually be encoded in tiny packets in two dimensions, the researchers say. 

'We want to find out whether space-time is a quantum system just like matter is,' said Craig Hogan, director of Fermilab's Center for Particle Astrophysics and the developer of the holographic noise theory. 

'If we see something, it will completely change ideas about space we've used for thousands of years.'

Get close enough to your TV screen and you'll see pixels, small points of data that make a seamless image if you stand back. 

Scientists think that the universe's information may be contained in the same way - as pixels in a TV screen.

The natural 'pixel size' of space is roughly 10 trillion trillion times smaller than an atom, a distance that physicists refer to as the Planck scale. 

Quantum theory suggests that it is impossible to know both the exact location and the exact speed of subatomic particles. 

If space comes in 2D bits with limited information about the precise location of objects, then space itself would fall under the same theory of uncertainty. 

The same way that matter continues to jiggle (as quantum waves) even when cooled to absolute zero, this digitized space should have built-in vibrations even in its lowest energy state.

Essentially, the experiment probes the limits of the universe's ability to store information. 

A close-up of the Holometer at Fermilab, an experiment designed to test the information storage capacity of the universe, and determine whether we live in a 2-D hologram.

If there is a set number of bits that tell you where something is, it eventually becomes impossible to find more specific information about the location – even in principle. 

The instrument testing these limits is Fermilab's Holometer, or holographic interferometer, the most sensitive device ever created to measure the quantum jitter of space itself.

Now operating at full power, the Holometer uses a pair of interferometers placed close to one another. 

Each one sends a one-kilowatt laser beam (the equivalent of 200,000 laser pointers) at a beam splitter and down two perpendicular 40-meter arms. 

The light is then reflected back to the beam splitter where the two beams recombine, creating fluctuations in brightness if there is motion. 

Researchers analyze these fluctuations in the returning light to see if the beam splitter is moving in a certain way – being carried along on a jitter of space itself. 

'Holographic noise' is expected to be present at all frequencies, but the scientists' challenge is not to be fooled by other sources of vibrations. 

Fermilab scientist Aaron Chou, left, project manager for the Holometer experiment, and Vanderbilt University graduate student Brittany Kamai peer into the device that will test whether the universe is a 2D hologram.

The Holometer is testing a frequency so high – millions of cycles per second – that motions of normal matter are not likely to cause problems. Rather, the dominant background noise is more often due to radio waves emitted by nearby electronics. 

The Holometer experiment is designed to identify and eliminate noise from such conventional sources.

'If we find a noise we can't get rid of, we might be detecting something fundamental about nature – a noise that is intrinsic to space-time,' said Fermilab physicist Aaron Chou, lead scientist and project manager for the Holometer. 

'It's an exciting moment for physics. 

'A positive result will open a whole new avenue of questioning about how space works.'