The detailed, all-sky picture of the infant universe created from seven years of NASA's WMAP data (Image: NASA/WMAP)Voice of America
Cosmologists in London say they’ve developed a new computer algorithm which could help them find proof of a parallel universe.
The concept of multiple universes is not new. The multiverse - also called the meta-universe or metaverse – is a theory that suggests the universe is actually a series of multiple or alternative universes, with our own universe being just one of many.
American philosopher and psychologist William James came up with the term back in 1895.
The universes that are contained within the multiverse are sometimes called parallel universes.
Some of the current multiverse theories propose that our and other universes are contained inside a bubble, where known fundamental physical constants, and even the basic laws of nature, might vary.
Theories of the the multiverse are found, not only in sciences like cosmology, physics and astronomy, but also within the study of religion, philosophy, trans-personal psychology and in literature, usually science fiction.
Research papers issued by a team based at University College London (UCL), Imperial College London and the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, outline just how one can search for signatures of other universes.
According to the research team, the new computer algorithm searches the skies for the tell-tale signatures of collisions between “bubble universes”.
Armed with this new tool, physicists are now searching for disk-like patterns in the heat radiation left over from the Big Bang – which is known as cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation – for evidence of collisions between other universes and our own.
If the scientists prove successful at detecting signs of bubble universe collisions, they would then have have proof of the multiverse.
The study’s authors stress that their initial results are not conclusive enough to either rule out the multiverse or to definitively detect the imprint of a bubble collision.
