Parallel Universes-Do They Exist?

There is a fascinating story of a man who was caught bycustom officials at Tokyo airport in 1954 because his passport showed that hecame from a country called Taured in Europe that actually didn’t exist. Hispassport and other documents were real. The passport had proper stampsincluding Japanese stamps of his previous visit. After several hours, he wasput up in a hotel with security but he vanished during the night, along withhis belongings although two officers were placed outside the door of his roomon the 15th floor. Was he a man who lived in unknown realms, who suddenlyslipped into our universe? This is not a one-off incident; in fact there aremany claims of such incidents happening around. People generally speculate thatthere are other universes, perhaps even with different versions of ourselvesand histories. Could there be another planet like earth where people live likeus? Space is so big and vast that one is forced to accept that if a planet likeearth was possible to be created, why cannot there be another earth. Aninfinite universe would have infinitely many planets and on some of them, theevents that play out would be virtually identical to that on Earth. The rulesof probability also support this viewpoint.

There are number of cosmological theories that propose thatthe universe is not the only one universe. We live in a world which itself isone among many worlds, that exist in parallel to each other in differentdimensions like pages in a book but without touching each other. In one page ofthe universe one might be reading, in another page of the universe one might bewriting and in another universe one might be eating. The string theory callsthis infinite number of universes as multiverse which all co-exist in somehigher dimensional hypothetical space. These distinct universes within themultiverse are each with its own laws of physics commonly referred to asparallel universe, alternate universe or alternate reality. They were createdin Big Bang-type events and some of them have been fine-tuned for life with allthe stuff like stars, galaxies etc. These universes are all related to ours,they branch off from ours and ours branch off of others. The laws of physicsmay or may not be same and their histories may have developed differently.Within these parallel universes, our actions may have different outcomes andthere could exist a replica of you and me. Species that are extinct in ouruniverse may have evolved and adapted in others.

   

Parallel universe concept has been a staple food in sciencefiction, movies and philosophical debates from time immoral. It has been afascinating connection between the fantasy world and earth where everythingthat is possible can be conceived to exist. The parallel universe actuallyhappens within our own universe. We live in a reality with alternativepossibilities and these different scenarios happen every time. It can be areflection of your mind and consciousness. For example, imagination is theparallel universe of a writer. If he is not responding to you in this world, heis probably responding to someone in the imaginary world. Dreams are windows ofgoing into another world. You are sleeping and you had a dream of chatting witha beautiful girl. You are sleeping in one world while you are chatting in theother world. Similarly you wake up in the morning and then think whether youwant to take a coffee or a tea or just carry on without anything. At that verymoment, the realities get split. In one universe you have taken coffee while inother you are enjoying your tea while in another one, you just carried on. Sothere will be three universes running. This is how a parallel universe works.The parallel universe can be right in our midst or nearby divided by aspace-time but in the realm of an alternative dimension that we can’t see, hearor smell.

The idea of parallel universes seems bizarre, but physicshas found all sorts of reasons to consider it a possibility. It has emerged onits own accord from the fascinating scientific findings of experiments based onquantum mechanics and string theory. Its idea was first evoked in 1954 toexplain the erratic quantum behavior, such as how a particle can appear to bein two places at once. Hugh Everett III, an American physicist, a Princetondoctoral candidate, who proposed them, suffered such ridicule that he quit hisphysics. Everett’s theory was considered far-fetched for many years but becamean interest when scientists found that it is theoretically possible. Quantummechanics is a mathematical description that rules the tiny world of atoms andparticles such as electrons, protons, photons etc which exist both as waves andparticles. Much of quantum physics is weird and mysterious with confusing ideasthat violate our common sense. For example, in our day-to-day lives a ball orany object can be at one place at a time but the same doesn’t happen to thesubatomic particles which exist in a realm of possibilities before beingobserved. The very act of watching/observing the event; the things settle in aspecific state, the reality is created. This character is known as quantumsuperposition.

The quantum superposition has been demonstrated by manythought and real experiments. A famous thought experiment conceived by ErwinSchrodinger in 1935 known as Schrodinger’s cat, in which a cat is locked in achamber with radioactive triggered poison gas and then left for some time. Aslong as the door is closed, the cat is simultaneously alive and dead but whenyou open the box, the cat is either dead or alive. Like, a light bulb is bothshining and not shining at the same time, but when we observe it, it is eithershining or not shining. Until we observe the event, both the possibilities arerunning simultaneously, this is the crux how parallel universe exists. Everytime we make a decision, our universe splits into quantum states and we call itdifferent parallel universes. If you are running to catch a train there are twopossibilities, either you miss or catch the train. In the Many Worldsinterpretation, both events actually occur. If in this world you missed thetrain, there’s actually another world in which you caught the train. This isquite absurd and unacceptable. But quantum mechanics is the most successfultheory which is reliable and gives precise predictions. We know that all modernday technological advances are based on quantum physics.

The concept of parallel universe is one of the mostintriguing and enticing possibilities but a topic of great contentious debate.Many experts believe that it is more a meta-physics than a pure physics whichis not observable and therefore not verifiable. It is a fabrication of realityinvoked to keep people in the dark. However there are strong counter arguments.The quantum phenomenon that observation affects the reality doesn’t mean if wecan’t see things, they don’t exist, after all, the bacteria, viruses etc can’tbe seen but they kill us. The atoms do exist, even if they can’t be observeddirectly. To Copernicus, the universe was nearly the solar system but today theuniverse is the billions of galaxies, dark matter and energy. Same reasoningcan be applied to parallel universes. If other universes exist, they may wellbe forever beyond the power of humankind’s observational instruments. Thescientists have a strong data confirming the reality but the reality is notthat simple. While the scientific quest for parallel universes and otherdimensions continues, a time may come when it might be possible to test fortheir existence.

Dr Mohammad Amin Malik is Associate Professor , HigherEducation Deptt,J&K

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