Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Laura Mersini-Houghton and Parallel Universe


Laura Mersini-Houghton
University of North Carolina (ref)
Dr. Laura Mersini-Houghton (née Laura Mersini) is a theoretical physicist-cosmologist and a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill since January 2004. Her theories concerning observational proof of the existence of the multiuniverse, our universe's relationship to it, and her predicted observational confirmations of those theories, have resulted in opening new insights into the Big Bang theory and other physical phenomena.
wikipedia


Parallel Universe
A controversial claim by Laura Mersini-Houghton is that [the Eridanus Supervoid] could be the imprint of another universe beyond our own, caused by quantum entanglement between universes before they were separated by cosmic inflation.

Laura Mersini-Houghton said, "Standard cosmology cannot explain such a giant cosmic hole" and made the remarkable hypothesis that the WMAP cold spot is "… the unmistakable imprint of another universe beyond the edge of our own."

If true this provides the first empirical evidence for a parallel universe (though theoretical models of parallel universes existed previously). It would also support string theory. The team claims there are testable consequences for its theory.

If the parallel universe theory is true there will be a similar void in the opposite hemisphere of the Celestial sphere (which New Scientist reported to be the Southern hemisphere; the results of the New Mexico array study reported it as Northern hemisphere).
wikipedia

Infinite number of Universes - what is time?
The multiverse view offers a simple answer: If there are an infinite number of cosmoses, it would make sense that at least some universes should start in a low entropy state. Mersini-Houghton first became interested in the idea of a multiverse with the advent of the string-theory landscape. In 2003, string theorists began to realize that their equations offered a staggering 10500 equally-valid solutions, each of which could describe a possible universe. Suddenly there was talk of a string landscape—a multiverse of universes, each with different physical laws.
FOQXi Community Journal June 17. 2010

2 comments:

  1. When you have unexplained phenomena, sometimes, rather than revising our theory with a patch to cover the situation, you need to look for a faulty assumption.

    For example; if we assumed that we have a Discrete Universe rather than an Analogue one, perhaps we should be using Discrete Math to explain it rather than normal Math.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, you are right. It is my understanding that theories of multiverse are facing increasing difficulties not to be considered overly speculative. But changes of paradigms have been eye opening and ultimately it all comes down to Math.

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