The concept of the multiverse is increasingly appearing in popular culture. For example, it moves the plot of the hit TV show Rick and Morty and the fourth phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. High-tech explains the basic principles of the controversial hypothesis and examines how real it is.
According to the hypothesis, the universe in which we live may not be the only one in existence. There are actually an infinite number of universes, and they are all combined into a multiverse. This concept may sound a little crazy, but if it is correct, then there is an alternative world, exactly like the one in which we live. Despite the fact that physicists claim that the multiverse is just a fiction, some scientists are trying to prove it. Even Stephen Hawking tried to solve her paradox.
How did the multiverse come about?
The concept of the multiverse belongs to several areas of physics (and even philosophy), but most of all the theory of inflation is associated with it. She describes what happened when our universe was very young and less than a second old. In an incredibly short period of time, it quickly expanded to a huge size and was an order of magnitude larger than it is now.
This theory combines ideas from quantum physics and particle physics to explore the early moments of life in the universe immediately after the Big Bang. According to the hypothesis, it extends much further than modern telescopes can see. In these remote regions, inflation has been going on for billions of years.
Bubble universe concept
There is a theory that fits into the hypothesis of the existence of the multiverse – the chaotic theory of inflation. According to her, inflation did not happen once and ended, but continues and develops in different regions of the space. Under certain assumptions within the framework of the theory, it becomes possible for universes with various elementary particles and the laws of their interaction to exist in the multiverse. In other words, the scenario of chaotic inflation is consistent with the concept of the multiverse – as a result of eternal inflation, new bubble universes appear.
To understand how this works, you can imagine the Universe, in which violent growth processes are taking place, like boiling water. An excess of energy leads to seething – fluctuations – in space-time, and as a result, bubbles form – new universes. If they turn out to be small, then they quickly collapse, the released energy leads to the birth of new worlds. But if the bubbles – the universes – are solid, then they grow, get bigger and expand. In any case, until they explode. When this happens, the energy from this process will also lead to the formation of new universes. This is the “bubble” hypothesis. It echoes the theory of the Big Bang, from which the expansion of the Universe began. But only “our” explosion is not the only one, but only one of many.
According to the hypothesis, the universe in which we live may not be the only one in existence.
At the same time, the multiverse hypothesis assumes that inflation does not occur everywhere at the same rate. Individual universes can “rob” other expanding universes, creating an infinite number of new ones. In this scenario, each universe arises with its own laws of physics, a set of particles, an arrangement of forces, and the values of fundamental constants. This may explain why there are some concepts in our universe that are difficult to explain using fundamental physics – for example, dark matter or the cosmological constant.
Have you tried to prove this hypothesis?
Many scientists have tried to find more compelling physical evidence for the existence of the multiverse. If ours once had a neighbor in the past, then she could collide with her, leaving a detectable imprint. For example, this imprint could appear in the form of distortions of the relic radiation (cosmic microwave background). But such searches have not yet led to anything, so the multiverse hypothesis remains a hypothesis.
But scientists don’t give up. For example, Heling Deng, a cosmologist at Arizona State University (USA) and an expert on the multiverse hypothesis, continues to try to prove the existence of parallel worlds by looking for special types of black holes. The scientist believes that they can be artifacts of those parts of the Universe that appeared in the process of “division” into ours and parallel as a result of quantum tunneling. If some of its regions were divided in this way, then “bubbles” remained in it, which turned into unique black holes and may still exist.
However, in his most recent work, physicist Stephen Hawking, in collaboration with his Belgian colleague Thomas Hertog, argued that the infinite inflation model is wrong because Einstein’s laws of General Relativity are shattered at the quantum level, becoming useless. According to the famous scientist, space is not infinite, everything has clear boundaries, dimensions and structure.
In his latest work, Hawking claims that there can be several universes, but they are all similar to each other.
What if the hypothesis is real?
Perhaps the most exciting thing about the multiverse hypothesis is the possibility of each of us having doubles. If in fact there are an infinite number of universes, there are also a finite number of ways to arrange particles in any of them. This means that, in the end, the same patterns will necessarily be repeated. According to the Hawking – Hertog theory, if parallel worlds exist, the laws of physics in them must be the same as in ours. In the end, there is a chance that somewhere there will be an exact copy of you reading an exact copy of this article. And, since there are an infinite number of universes, then, according to the Institute of Physics, there will be as many exact scenarios occurring simultaneously.
Whether the concept of the multiverse is correct or not is likely to remain one of those unanswered questions. At least in this universe.
