How many universes are there, anyway

http://timeandquantummechanics.comMultiverse - Balticon, May 23rd, 2015John Ashmead Anyway?

Just how many universes are there,

http://timeandquantummechanics.comMultiverse - Balticon, May 23rd, 2015

• Rainbow gravity

• Gravity leaking into nearby dimensions

• Miniature black holes

• The multiverse today

• The problem of fine-tuning

• A scientific hypothesis?

• What are the odds?

The Multiverse Today

• A brief history of the multiverse

• The edge of the known

• From the Big Bang to now

A brief history of the Multiverse

• Eratothenes’s Earth

• Kepler’s Moon

• Galileo’s Jupiter

• Wright’s Galaxies

• Bessel’s Star

• Chief Librarian at Alexandria at 245 BC

• Sieve of primes

• Beta/Pentathelete

• Camel-Days

• Right order of magnitude

Eratothenes’ Earth

Kepler’s Somnium (1608+)

• Autobiographical

• Revised thru his life

• Copernican theory

• The view from the moon

• Careful reasoning

• Notebooks

• Time series

• A lot to love here

Galileo & The Moons of Jupiter(1610)

Wright’s Galaxies (1750)

• Milky way as galaxy

• Nebulae as galaxies

• An indifferent universe

Bessel’s Star (1838)

Cosmic Distance Ladder

• Parallax (Blue)

• Standard Candles (Light Orange)

• Supernovae (Red)

• The red shift (Dull green)

• 30 billion years away

• But only 13.7 billion years since start?

• Space has been expanding!

Finite but no edge!

• Finite but no edge

• It’s getting bigger every minute

• Now is a good time for observers

Big Bang Theory (De Luce)

• Only theory with a TV show

• Robert Grossteste, 1175 - 1253.

• The Big Bang theory is not about the Big Bang

• Why is the universe so flat?

• With matching temperature

• & curvature?

Too Hot to Shine• Only ionized

particles

• The unfortunate photon no sooner escapes from one particle

• Than it is absorbed by another!

Tri-Alpha Process• Helium

stable

• Beryllium (next) is NOT

• But there is a resonance with Carbon

• Tunnel thru!

The problem of fine-tuning

• Just six numbers

• Quantum fluctuations

• String theory

Anthropic testsCurious when you think about it that the universe is perfectly

adapted for velociraptors

What if there are lots of universes & we

just got lucky?I see dinner!

Vulcan Science Directorate Thinks not

A parallel universe. The science directorate has examined all these theories. They've found no evidence of alternate realities.

Quantum Fluctuations

• Quantum fluctuations

• Fractals

• Led to universe

• And galaxies

Eternal Inflation• Parts of the mega

universe suddenly cool out

• Creating a bubble universe

• That inflates with specific values of the fundamental physical constants

Live, Die, Repeat• Origin of species

• “Generate & test”

• Galaxies, stars, planets, & us

• Universes & their observers

• And theories of the multiverse, e.g. String Theory

String theory• Most popular today

• Gets rid of some infinities

• Lets us combine particle physics & gravity

• 10 dimensions for superstrings

Compactification

Calabi-Yau Manifolds

• The “extra” dimensions are curled up into complex structures

• Many possible ways to do this

String-scape• 10^500

possibilities

• Most are uninteresting

• A few “Happy Valleys”

Fringe Science?• Hot scientists?

• Equations?

• Intense but puzzled expressions?

• Fate of the universe at stake?

How to think about WeirdThings

• Testability

• Fruitfulness

• Scope

• Simplicity

• Conservatism

Testability

Cosmological Microwave Background

Bubble universes

Bubbles in the CMB?

• Nearby parallel universe

• Leaves smudge on the CMB

• Sister universes?

Gravitational waves

• Distant universes

• Remnants of collisions

• From before the Big Bang

Fruitfulness

• Gives you something to look for at small scales

• And at large

• Can rock the mind loose from hard-wired assumptions

• Largest possible scope

• See as far as possible

• And then drive imagination a bit further than that

Simplicity

• # of hypotheses

• not number of parts, but the kinds of parts

• is a Calabi-Yau manifold simple or complex?

Wheeler’s Radical Conservatism

• The combination of Eternal Inflation & String theory gives the multiverse as a straight forward prediction

• Gellmann’s totalitarian principle + the 30 odd constants also imply multiverse

• And Many Worlds Interpretation implies that the multiverse a natural implication of quantum mechanics

The universe whisperer

• Shift your assumptions to match those of your target world

• Absurd

• And profound

Syllogismobile

one universe or many?

Thanks!

• Balticon & Miriam Kelly

• Ferne Welch

• Brenda Welch & Jamie Laird

• Other quasi-willing ears

• Stenger - God & the Multiverse - 2014

• Greene - Hidden Reality - 2011

• Barrow - The Book of Universes - 2011

• Clegg - Before the Big Bang - 2009

• Susskind - The Cosmic Landscape - 2006

How many universes are there, anyway

Science

Island Universes

NNSS Visual Universes (English Version)

Parallel universes

ThomasJohnson_New Universes or Black Holes

Demystifying Research Informed Teaching: parallel universes?

Introduction to the DC & Marvel Universes

Parallel Universes or Universes in Collision?

Universes and General

PARALLEL UNIVERSES OMBUDSMAN AND COURTS - IOI

Open universes and nuclear weapons

Holographic Universes

Computational universes by oswald berthold

Many Worlds Theory of Infinite Parallel Universes

Time ravelT and Parallel Universes

BO Universes

What is the WHT anyway, and why are there so many ways to compute it?

PARALLEL UNIVERSES by OM MEE AI

Humans and Their Universes

Concept of parallel universes

Multiverse - By Max Tegmark Universes Parallel