A team of researchers has made a controversial claim that challenges the conventional knowledge of space and time.
According to Howard Wiseman, from Griffith University's Center for Quantum Dynamics, and colleagues, there are parallel universes with multiple timelines. If this theory, which was presented in a paper published in the journal Physical Review X, is correct, time travel would be a possibility.
Many Worlds Interpretation
The idea is based on the Many Worlds interpretation theory in quantum mechanics, which has been around since 1957. It posits that each universe branches out to a new universe once a quantum measurement is made. The theory was formulated by Hugh Everett but Bryce Seligman DeWitt popularized it in the 60s and 70s dubbing it "many worlds."
Time Travel Possible With Multiple Universes
If there are indeed multiple universes that interact with each other, it would make time travel possible. It also means that every imaginable scenario is possible in a parallel universe at some point such that in some universes, the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs missed the Earth and Texas could be a sovereign nation and not a part of the United States.
Governed By The Same Law Of Physics
The researchers who proposed the new theory explained that parallel universes are governed by the same laws of physics with the particles in the individual universe giving a subtle push against those in other universes, which can explain the quantum weirdness experienced in our universe.
Wiseman said that the best way to describe parallel universes is to consider them as ghost universes that exist in the same space as the universe that we know of. These universes, however, are invisible since they interact with our universe under strict conditions.
Wiseman explained that the interactions between the universes are very minute and use a force that interacts between similar particles in each of the universes. This explains why we cannot feel or notice them albeit these are enough to provide explanation for quantum mechanics.
The researchers mathematically demonstrated the theory using the classic double slit theory where individual photons are each fired at different times at a screen that served as a detector. There is black material with two slits in it that absorbs the photons and is placed between the screen and the source.
If photons are mere particles, the researchers said they will spread evenly in space but instead, they piled up together in strips with a particular pattern. The same thing would occur if the photons would pass through both of the slits as a wave, providing evidence that the photon is both a wave and a particle.
