Story of the Parallel Universe

The multiverse theory suggests that our universe is just one of many in an infinite multiverse where new universes are constantly being born. It seems likely that baby universes are produced with a wide range of physical laws and fundamental constants, but that only a tiny fraction of these are hospitable for life. It would therefore make sense that there is a universe with the strange fundamental constants we see, finely tuned to be hospitable for life.

But now our new discovery, published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, complicates things by suggesting that life may actually be a lot more common in parallel universes than we had thought.

Atoms vibrating in different frequencies occupy respective vibration dimensions in space and time

While there is no physical evidence that parallel universes exist (at the moment), the theories that explain how our universe came to be seem to suggest that they are inevitable. Our universe started with a Big Bang, followed by a period of very rapid expansion, known as inflation. However, according to modern physics, inflation is unlikely to have been a single event. Instead, many different patches of the cosmos could suddenly start inflating and expand to huge volumes – each bubble creating a universe in its own right.

Theories of parallel universes

Existences of alternate universes are suspected to be connected  by random portals

There are at least five theories why a multiverse is possible:

1. Infinite universes. We don't know what the shape of space-time is exactly. One prominent theory is that it is flat and goes on forever. This would present the possibility of many universes being out there. But with that topic in mind, it's possible that universes can start repeating themselves. That's because particles can only be put together in so many ways.

2. Bubble universes. Another theory for multiple universes comes from "eternal inflation." Based on research from Tufts University cosmologist Alexander Vilenkin, when looking at space-time as a whole, some areas of space stop inflating like the Big Bang inflated our own universe. Others, however, will keep getting larger. So if we picture our own universe as a bubble, it is sitting in a network of bubble universes of space. What's interesting about this theory is the other universes could have very different laws of physics than our own, since they are not linked.

3. Daughter universes. Or perhaps multiple universes can follow the theory of quantum mechanics (how subatomic particles behave), as part of the "daughter universe" theory. If you follow the laws of probability, it suggests that for every outcome that could come from one of your decisions, there would be a range of universes — each of which saw one outcome come to be. So in one universe, you took that job to China. In another, perhaps you were on your way and your plane landed somewhere different, and you decided to stay. And so on. 

4. Mathematical universes. Another possible avenue is exploring mathematical universes, which, simply put, explain that the structure of mathematics may change depending in which universe you reside. "A mathematical structure is something that you can describe in a way that's completely independent of human baggage," said theory-proposer Max Tegmark of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as quoted in the 2012 article. "I really believe that there is this universe out there that can exist independently of me that would continue to exist even if there were no humans."

5. Parallel universes. And last but not least as the idea of parallel universes. Going back to the idea that space-time is flat, the number of possible particle configurations in multiple universes would be limited to 10^10^122 distinct possibilities, to be exact. So, with an infinite number of cosmic patches, the particle arrangements within them must repeat — infinitely many times over. This means there are infinitely many "parallel universes": cosmic patches exactly the same as ours (containing someone exactly like you), as well as patches that differ by just one particle's position, patches that differ by two particles' positions, and so on down to patches that are totally different from ours.

Famously, physicist's Stephen Hawking's last paper before his death also dealt with the multiverse. The paper was published in May 2018, just a few months after Hawking's demise. About the theory, he told Cambridge University in an interview published in The Washington Post, "We are not down to a single, unique universe, but our findings imply a significant reduction of the multiverse to a much smaller range of possible universes."

Recent discussions on Parallel Universe

Multiverse: A very strong possibility

How did the claims on NASA's discovery of parallel universe come about?

The recent reports claiming that there is evidence of a parallel universe appear to be based on ANITA findings that are at least a couple of years old.

A science magazine had published a feature, discussing some anomalous results coming from neutrino detection experiments in Antarctica, and what these could mean for a speculative cosmological model that posits there's an antimatter universe extending backwards from the BigBang.

The featured article was then 'curated' by some online media outlets, and the whole issue snowballed and became the talk of the town for the Twitteratis.

What were the anomalous detections in Antarctica?

Four years ago, the Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA) experiment — a high-altitude helium balloon with an array of radio antennas, partially funded by NASA — had spotted a handful of instances of what seemed to be highly energetic neutrinos coming through the Earth. The telescope could spot these neutrinos coming from the space and hitting the ice sheet in Antarctica. ANITA detected these particles, but instead of coming from the space, the neutrinos were found to be coming from the Earth's surface without any source. These detections happened in 2016, then again in 2018, but there was no credible explanation.

Physicists have been working to figure out if these results can be explained with our current models of physics or have something to do with the experimental set-up itself, or if something like parallel universe does exist.

Scientists not ready to call parallel universe a discovery yet

Going by what the scientists have actually said, it's clear that these are exciting times for the astrophysicists trying to find an explanation and future experiments with more “exposure and sensitivity” will be required to get a clear understanding of the anomaly.

However, people wishing for a parallel universe will have to wait because the evidence is lacking and the scientists are not yet ready to call it a discovery.

What is a neutrino?

A neutrino is a subatomic particle very similar to an electron. But it has no electrical charge and a very small mass, which might even be zero. Neutrinos are one of the most abundant particles in the universe. Because they have very little interaction with matter, they are incredibly difficult to detect.

The world is so much obsessed with the concept of parallel universe that we have comics, novels, movies based on the same, made every year to exuberant crowd response. Hope this obsession leads to researches which give a conclusive answer on the existence of the real multiverse.

That's it for now. Stay Safe. Stay Healthy.