Multiverse — Meet Your Clones!
A Mind Boggling Idea
There is another exact copy of you neither reading this article nor here on this platform. When you were deciding to read this article, your clone had a different thought and instead of reading, he/she did exactly the opposite — started playing soccer or went for swimming; on the contrary, you are here stuck with me understanding him/her(your clone) through this article. Not just this, another clone of yours is sleeping while the fourth clone is presently watching a movie, and similarly it goes on — “I mean, your clones and their respective worlds or universes”. Each of your clones is in a different world, in a different universe — that’s the basic concept behind the parallel universes — collectively called Multiverse. Let’s bring you face-to-face with your clones.
The multiverse is a theory in which our universe is not the only one, but states that many universes exist parallel to each other. These distinct universes within the multiverse theory are called Parallel Universes. Parallel universes are not a theory but are a prediction of certain theories.
You didn’t get a feeling, right? Let me help you using the words of a Physicist named Max Tegmark — the person because of whom we are able to predict up to Level IV Multiverse. Tegmark says, “a single calcium atom entering my prefrontal cortex would cause a particular neuron to fire an electrical signal. If that very calcium atom started in slightly two different places at once, then half a second later, my pupils would have been pointing in two opposite directions at once, two seconds later my bike would have been in two different places at once, and before long, I’d have been dead and alive at once — splitting our universe into parallel universes.”
Information pointing to the presence of Parallel Universes
It was the year 2010 when Stephen Feeney at University College London along with colleagues announced they’d discovered various patterns in the map of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) (it’s the leftover radiation from the Big Bang). Their observations suggested there’s a possibility that our universe had been left marked by colliding with other universes.
Another case is also an interesting one. In 2012, two scientists, Dr. S. Haroche and Dr. D. Wieland were awarded with Nobel Prize for their experiments that showed that a particle can be at two locations at the same time.
What’s the big deal, that’s what you’re thinking, right? —From here we’ll use a little bit of imagination. You and I are also made up of these particles. If these particles can exist at different places at the same time then why can’t we? Are you shocked? Are you already imagining yourself in different bodies at once?
Even quantum mechanics has its own way of dealing with the problem of one particle at the same time at two different places.
Copenhagen Interpretation, challenged the human mind through its prediction, “that the particles were not always in just one state and that they could be in more than one state at the same time (the concept referred to as a ‘superposition’ of states), and so when an individual realised what state they were in, they would immediately become in only one state”.
Copenhagen Interpretation is another way of perceiving the Schrodinger’s Cat thought experiment— which in turn is another way of perceiving the question related to the position of a particle at different positions at the same time. According to Schrodinger, suppose we have a cat in a box with a particle that is in a superposition of states(if a physical system may be in one of many configurations — arrangements of particles or fields — then the most general state is a combination of all of these possibilities). We set the apparatus of the box in such a way that if the particle is in one state the cat is poisoned and dies, and if the particle is in the other state the cat is fine. It means there is a 50–50 probability — either the cat is alive or dead. As we know, the state of the cat is determined by the state of the particle. So if the particle is in a superposition of states then similar is the case with the cat — it must be in a superposition of states as well. According to the Copenhagen Interpretation, the cat is both alive and dead at the same time, and is in one state only and only when you open the box and see for yourself, otherwise, you can’t predict. Similar is the fate of the particle.
Theory of Multiverse
Various hypotheses are based upon these:
- Hubble volumes: It’s a spherical region of the observable universe surrounding an observer beyond which objects begin to recede from the observer at a rate greater than the speed of light due to the expansion of the Universe. Now the idea is each universe beyond this region could be a separate universe.
- String Theory landscape: In string theory, there are many ways of compacting various extra dimensions needed for string theory to work. Every such possible way could be comprising its own universe. The basic idea is that they either all exist, or that random universe configurations pop up all the time like soap foam, and some of them may expand to a universe in which people can live. This is almost entirely hypothetical — the idea is an ultimate one but the problem is that it’s untestable at the present time.
- Eternal inflation: It predicts our universe(all that is in between 14 billion light-years) is simply one out of an infinite number of universes. Physicists suggest that some pockets of space stop inflating, while other regions continue to inflate, thus giving rise to many isolated “bubble universes”.
Theories predicting parallel universes
- The Dimensional Theory of Reality states for every decision made, the alternative decision is played out in another reality. There is an infinite number of universes with an infinite number of possibilities. Without breaking the chunks of the present- reality an individual can cross dimensions and arrive in another universe. This jump in the term of science is referred to as Dimension Jump, using a transdimensional portal.
What do you think? What would you do if you’d the power of jumping into other dimensions? - Inflation theory predicts Level I parallel universes,
- Inflation+landscape theory about Level II parallel universe,
- collapse-free quantum mechanics about Level III universes and
- External reality hypothesis predicts about Level IV parallel universes.
(*According to Prof. Max Tegmark)
Types Of Multiverse
These multiverses are distinct due to their different models, which are based upon the nature of space. One model perceives space to be a finite structure — that is limited — gives it a shape of a sphere or a hypersphere — or a torus- shaped. While the other model predicts the universe as an infinite structure, that goes on, and on, and so on — filling the space with hot expanding plasma. Brian Greene and Max Tegmark are the leading experts in Multiverse theory.
According to Tegmark, multiverses are divided into four types/levels:
- Level I multiverse — distant regions of space that are currently but not forever unobservable; they have the same effective laws but may have different histories
- Level II multiverse — Distant regions of space that are forever unobservable because space between here and there keeps inflating; they obey the same fundamental laws of physics, but their effective laws of physics may be different
- Level III multiverse — Different parts of quantum Hilbert space(space with infinite dimensions) same diversity as Level II
- Level IV multiverse — All mathematical structures corresponding to different fundamental laws of physics.
Level 1: An extension of our universe
The observers thriving in parallel universes of the Level I multiverse would feel the same laws of physics as we feel but with quite different early conditions than our universe.
We don’t see these other universes because our cosmic vision is limited by the speed of light — the ultimate speed limit. Right from the moment of the Big Bang, approximately 14 billion years back. We can only see up to 14 billion light-years far, beyond it we can’t perceive because space is expanding. This volume of space is called the Hubble volume and represents our observable universe. So Level I parallel universes are so far away that light from them hasn’t reached us until now(Note: presently we can only perceive light from within our own Hubble volume).
The existence of Level 1 parallel universes depends on two assumptions:
- The universe is infinite
- Within an infinite universe, every single possible configuration of particles in a Hubble volume takes place multiple times.
Evidence: Microwave background measurements
Level 2: Universes with different physical constants
Many physical laws and constants that keep unchanged across Level I multiverse may change across a Level II multiverse. In a Level 2 parallel universe, regions of space are in a continuing inflationary phase in various universes — that is to say, space between our universe and the other universes is expanding faster, even faster than the speed of light — and due to this, these universes can’t be reached.
You still don’t believe, right? Wait, we’ve two theories that point to the presence of Level II parallel universes. These theories are: eternal inflation and ekpyrotic theory.
Eternal Inflation theory — The main idea behind eternal inflation points that when inflation starts, it doesn’t produce only one universe, but many, in fact an infinite number of universes. In the early universe’s vacuum energy caused bubble type universes to be created all over, expanding at different rates through their inflation stages. The findings of eternal inflation mean that when inflation starts, it produces not just one universe, but an infinite number of universes.
ekpyrotic theory — The basic idea is to suppose if the universe is a region that results when two branes(extended objects analogous to the strings of string theory but having any number of dimensions rather than one dimension) collide, then the branes could actually collide in multiple locations. Understanding the concept in simple terms: Suppose you’ve got a tent that is fluttering in the storm. After some time, it falls on the ground. The exact moment when the tent fell down, that is to say, when it touched the ground wasn’t a single point, but at multiple points. Now, imagine the tent as the brane, and the point where it touches as various universes — so it means it would create many universes(at the points of touching) with their own conditions.
Evidence: Inflation theory
Level III multiverse: Many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics
These are very interesting multiverses, in a way, that they are not far away as the Level I and Level II, but they are right here with you.
A Level 3 parallel universe is a consequence of the many worlds interpretation (MWI) from quantum physics. According to Level III multiverse, there’s only one wavefunction, and it evolves over time. So each and every single quantum possibility in quantum wavefunction becomes a real possibility in some reality. The superpositions of different universes, all of them coexist at the same time in the same infinite-dimensional Hilbert space. These separate, coexisting universes interfere with each other.
- Level 3 parallel universes are different from Level 1 and 2, as they form in the same space and time as our own universe, next to us, and the interesting thing about them is that we don’t have a way to access them.
- It means you and I are every time in contact with Level 3 universes. It gets split with every decision of ours.
Evidence: Decoherence experimentally verified
Level IV multiverse: Ultimate ensemble
Basically, Max Tegmark is the person behind the Level IV multiverse. A Level 4 multiverse is the weirdest place (and most controversial prediction) of all, in the sense that it’ll have different laws of nature than our universe. It means that all the things that can be described mathematically can exist physically too. There is no symmetry in these universes. These universes are extremely hard to come into the imagination. In these universes gravity could be acting differently, time could be flowing backward and laws of motion could be different. For studying and exploring the Level IV multiverse, we would need computers and imagination.
There are parameters of our universe too. The interesting thing about them is that they’re not static — not applicable in the same manner in every such universe in the multiverse. If the parameters that define our universe were set differently — then our universe would’ve been different — then there wouldn’t be any stars, galaxies, and even life. There are infinite probabilities in the multiverse. Physicists have observed if the electromagnetic force was slightly weakened in our universe, then our Sun would explode. If nuclear force was weaker or stronger then the heavier elements that support life wouldn’t form. If electrons were heavier DNA molecules wouldn’t have formed. If protons were slightly heavier there would’ve been no atoms at all. If Dark energy had been much stronger in the first place, there wouldn’t be any galaxies.
We simply know there are three questions that are posed before humanity:
Are we here in this universe due to some wild stroke of luck?
Or,
Is there some intelligent force that’s created our universe?
Or,
Is the universe fine-tuned?……………
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