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The Multiverse is real. Just not in the way you think it is. | Sean Carroll

Become a Big Think member to unlock expert classes, premium print issues, exclusive events and more: https://bigthink.com/membership/?utm_… What do physicists actually mean when they talk about the Multiverse? Sean Carroll explains.

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The Multiverse is having a moment. From “Rick and Morty” to Marvel movies, the idea that our Universe is just one of many has inspired countless storylines in recent popular culture.

Why is the Multiverse so compelling? To theoretical physicist and philosopher Sean Carroll, one reason is that we’re drawn to wondering how things might have turned out differently. What if you had chosen a different career path? Married someone else? Moved to a different city?

Of course, there’s obviously no guarantee that you’re living out those alternate timelines in a different universe. But there are real scientific reasons to think that the Multiverse exists. And as Carroll explains, that possibility comes with some fascinating philosophical implications.

Spiral galaxy’s brilliant heart shines bright in a new picture from NASA’s Webb telescope

A spiral galaxy’s brilliant heart outshines everything within sight in a new picture from NASA’s Webb Space Telescope.

The image released this week depicts the Messier 77 galaxy 45 million light-years away in the Cetus, or whale, constellation. A light year is about 6 trillion miles.

The galaxy’s active nucleus is powered by a supermassive black hole that’s 8 million times more massive than the sun. Surrounding gas is sucked into a tight orbit around the black hole, becoming so hot that it radiates in the extreme. Webb’s mid-infrared instrument captured the stunning details.

Testing quantum collapse theory with the XENONnT dark matter detector

Theories of quantum mechanics predict that some particles can exist in superpositions, which essentially means that they can be in more than one state at once. When a particle’s state is measured, however, this superposition appears to “collapse” into a single outcome; a phenomenon often referred to as the “measurement problem.”

In recent years, various theoretical physicists have tried to explain why and how this collapse happens. This led to the introduction of various models, such as the Continuous Spontaneous Localization (CSL) and Diósi–Penrose models.

Both these models predict that spontaneous quantum collapse would also lead to the emission of faint X-ray radiation. The experimental detection of this radiation would thus provide evidence of these theories’ validity.

Why The Multiverse Could Be Real

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The multiverse pops out of quite a few theories in physics, and has been proposed as a solution to certain vexing problems. But it’s also been argued that the very idea of a multiverse is just bad science. That it’s unfalsifiable and a dead-end to inquiry and as bad a violation of Occam’s razor as you could imagine. But the multiverse might also exist. Can something that exists be bad science?

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A new way to read the universe could sharpen understanding of cosmic expansion and dark energy

An international team led by researchers at the Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the University of Barcelona (ICCUB) has developed a new method that could significantly improve our understanding of the expansion of the universe and the nature of dark energy.

The study, published in Nature Astronomy, presents a powerful framework called CIGaRS that allows scientists to extract more information from exploding stars known as Type Ia supernovae, primarily through imaging rather than costly spectroscopic observations. The results pave the way for making the most of the vast amount of data expected from the next generation of astronomical surveys, especially from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory.

What If Black Holes ARE Dark Energy?

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We tend to imagine there are connectings between things that we don’t understand. Quantum mechanics and consciousness, aliens and pyramids, black holes and dark matter, dark matter and dark energy, dark energy and black holes. Usually there’s no real relationship whatsoever, but this last pair—black holes and dark energy being the same thing—has received some recent hype in the press. Let’s see if it might actually be true.

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Understanding how lasers can rapidly magnetize fusion plasmas

The mechanism that can cause a rapidly expanding plasma—the superhot state of matter harnessed in fusion energy systems—to spontaneously generate its own magnetic fields was identified through a new set of simulations. This improves our understanding of naturally occurring plasmas in our universe and advances the development of fusion systems based on an approach called direct-drive inertial fusion.

In a direct-drive inertial fusion system, powerful lasers compress a small, fuel-filled capsule, heating it until fusion reactions occur. Unexpected magnetic fields can change how heat moves through the plasma in ways that existing simulation tools can miss. Accurate simulations are critical to designing fusion systems that will behave as expected and deliver net energy on a long-term basis.

In laboratory experiments, researchers found that high-powered lasers can vaporize a solid target in an instant, turning it into plasma that rapidly expands. Experiments have repeatedly detected very strong magnetic structures emerging from this expanding plasma, but the precise origin of these fields has long been a matter of debate.

Sean Carroll, CalTech, John’s Hopkins, Santa Fe Institute

One of the great intellectual achievements of the twentieth century was the theory of quantum mechanics, according to which observational results can only be predicted probabilistically rather than with certainty. Yet, after decades in which the theory has been successfully used on an everyday basis, most physicists would agree that we still don’t truly understand what it means. Sean Carroll will discuss the source of this puzzlement, and explain why an increasing number of physicists are led to an apparently astonishing conclusion: that the world we experience is constantly branching into different versions, representing the different possible outcomes of quantum measurements. This could have important consequences for quantum gravity and the emergence of spacetime.

Sean Carroll is a research professor at CalTech, Homewood Professor of Natural Philosophy at John’s Hopkins University, and Fractal Faculty at SFI. His research focuses on fundamental physics and cosmology, quantum gravity and spacetime, philosophy of science, and the evolution of entropy and complexity. He’s authored “Something Deeply Hidden: Quantum Worlds and the Emergence of Spacetime;” “The Big Picture;” “The Particle at the End of the Universe;” “From Eternity to Here;” and the textbook “Spacetime and Geometry.”

Something Disturbing Happens When You Solve Einstein’s Equations This Way

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Kurt Gödel discovered a solution to General Relativity that allows time travel without any exotic physics, revealing that the theory doesn’t actually guarantee a consistent chain of cause and effect. His “Gödel universe” shows that under certain conditions, the structure of spacetime itself can loop back on itself—blurring the line between past and future and exposing a deep limitation in our understanding of reality.

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