(ORDO NEWS) — Is this our universe or could there be something else? Is our universe just one of countless multitudes united in an all-encompassing multiverse?
And if there are other universes, what will they be? Can they be habitable?
This may seem like speculation piled on speculation, but it’s not as crazy as you might think.
My colleagues and I have been studying what other parts of the multiverse might look like – and what these hypothetical neighboring universes can tell us about the conditions that make life possible and how they arise.
Universes of “what if”
Some physicists argue that a burst of rapid expansion at the dawn of the cosmos, known as inflation, makes some form of the multiverse inevitable. Our universe would actually be just one of many.
In this theory, each new universe crystallizes out of the seething backdrop of inflation, imprinted in its own unique combination of physical laws.
If physical laws like ours govern these other universes, then we can handle them. Well, at least theoretically.
In our universe, physics is governed by rules that tell us how things should interact with each other, and by natural constants, such as the speed of light, that determine the strength of those interactions.
So we can imagine hypothetical “what if” universes where we change these properties and explore the consequences in terms of mathematical equations.
It may seem simple, but the rules we work with form the basis of the universe. If we imagine a universe where, say, an electron is a hundred times heavier than in our universe, then what would be its consequences for stars, planets, and even life?
What does life need?
We recently addressed this issue in a series of papers looking at habitability in the multiverse. Of course, habitability is a complex concept, but we think that life requires a few select ingredients to get it going.
Complexity is one of those ingredients. For life on Earth, this complexity arises from the elements of the periodic table, which can be mixed to form many different molecules. We are living molecular machines.
But a stable environment and a constant flow of energy are also needed. Not surprisingly, terrestrial life originated on the surface of a rocky planet with an abundance of chemical elements, bathed in the light of a long-lived stable star.
Tuning fundamental forces
Are there similar environments throughout the multiverse? We began our theoretical study by considering the abundance of chemical elements.
In our Universe, with the exception of the primordial hydrogen and helium, which were formed as a result of the Big Bang, all elements arise as a result of the life of stars.
They arise either from nuclear reactions in stellar cores or from supernova explosions, when a massive star is torn apart at the end of its life.
All these processes are controlled by four fundamental forces in the universe. Gravity compresses the stellar core, increasing its temperature and density.
Electromagnetism tries to separate atomic nuclei, but if they can get close enough, the strong nuclear force can bind them into a new element.
Even the weak nuclear force, which can turn a proton into a neutron, plays an important role in igniting a stellar furnace.
The masses of fundamental particles such as electrons and quarks may also play a role. key role.
So, in order to explore these hypothetical universes, we have many watch faces that we can customize. Changes in the fundamental universe affect the rest of physics.
Carbon-oxygen balance
To deal with the enormous complexity of this problem, we have broken down the various parts of physics into manageable chunks: stars and atmospheres, planets and plate tectonics, the origin of life, and more. And then we stitched the pieces together to tell the overall story of habitability in the multiverse.
A complex picture emerges. Some factors can greatly influence the habitability of the universe.
For example, the ratio of carbon to oxygen, determined by a certain chain of nuclear reactions in the heart of a star, seems to be of particular importance.
Too much deviation from this value in our universe, where the number of two elements is approximately the same, leads to conditions in which it will be extremely difficult for life to originate and flourish.
But the abundance of other elements is less important. As long as they are stable, which depends on the balance of fundamental forces, they can play a key role in the building blocks of life.
More challenges to explore
We have only been able to apply a general approach to the study of habitability in the multiverse, probing the space of possibilities in very discrete steps.
In addition, to make the problem manageable, we had to make several theoretical simplifications. and approximations. Thus, we are only at the first stage of understanding the conditions of life in the multiverse.
At the next stages, it is necessary to consider the full complexity of the alternative physics of other universes.
We will need to understand the impact of fundamental forces on a small scale and extrapolate it to a large scale, to the formation of stars and ultimately planets.
A small caveat
The idea of a multiverse is still just a hypothesis, an idea that has yet to be tested. In truth, we don’t yet know if this idea can be tested.
And we don’t know if physical laws can differ in the multiverse, and if so, by how much. they may be different.
We may be at the beginning of a path that will unlock our final place in infinity, or we may be heading into a scientific dead end.
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