Does a Parallel Universe Really Exist?

With his Many-Worlds theory, Everett was attempting to answer a rather sticky question related to quantum physics: Why does quantum matter behave erratically?

The quantum level is the smallest one science has detected so far. The study of quantum physics began in 1900 when the physicist Max Planck first introduced the concept to the scientific world. Planck's study of radiation yielded some unusual findings that contradicted classical physical laws.

These findings suggested that there are other laws at work in the universe, operating on a deeper level than the one we know.

In fairly short order, physicists studying the quantum level noticed some peculiar things about this tiny world. For one, the particles that exist on this level have a way of taking different forms arbitrarily. For example, scientists have observed photons — tiny packets of light — acting as particles and waves. Even a single photon exhibits this shape-shifting [source: Brown University].

Imagine if you looked and acted like a solid human being when a friend glanced at you, but when he looked back again, you'd taken a gaseous form. That's a simplified version of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle.

The physicist Werner Heisenberg suggested that just by observing quantum matter, we affect the behavior of that matter. Thus, we can never be fully certain of the nature of a quantum object or its attributes, like velocity and location.

The Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics supports this idea. Posed by the Danish physicist Niels Bohr, this interpretation says that all quantum particles don't exist in one state or the other but in all of their possible states at once. The sum total of possible states of a quantum object is the wave function. The state of an object existing in all of its possible states at once is superposition.

According to Bohr, when we observe a quantum object, we affect its behavior. Observation breaks an object's superposition and essentially forces the object to choose one state from its wave function. This theory accounts for why physicists have taken opposite measurements from the same quantum object: The object "chose" different states during different measurements.

Much of the quantum community accepted and continues to accept Bohr's interpretation. But lately, Everett's Many-Worlds theory has gotten some serious attention.

Young Hugh Everett agreed with much of what the highly respected physicist Niels Bohr had suggested about the quantum world. He agreed with the idea of superposition, as well as with the notion of wave functions. But Everett disagreed with Bohr in one vital respect: Measuring a quantum object does not force it into one comprehensive state or another, according to Everett.

Instead, a measurement taken of a quantum object causes an actual split in the universe. The universe literally duplicates, splitting into one universe for each possible outcome from the measurement.

For example, say an object's wave function is both a particle and a wave. When a physicist measures the particle, there are two possible outcomes: It will either be measured as a particle or a wave. This distinction makes Everett's Many-Worlds theory a competitor of the Copenhagen interpretation as an explanation for quantum mechanics.

When a physicist measures the object, the universe splits into two distinct universes to accommodate each of the possible outcomes. So a scientist in one universe measures the object in wave form. The same scientist in the other universe measures the object as a particle. This also explains how you can measure one particle in more than one state.

As unsettling as it might sound, Everett's Many-Worlds interpretation has implications beyond the quantum level. If an action has more than one possible outcome, then — if Everett's theory is correct — the universe splits when that action happens. This holds true even when a person chooses not to take an action.

This means that if you have ever found yourself in a situation where death was a possible outcome, then in a universe parallel to ours, you died. This is just one reason that some find the Many-Worlds interpretation disturbing.

Another disturbing aspect of the Many-Worlds interpretation is that it undermines our concept of time as linear. Imagine a timeline showing the history of the Vietnam War. Rather than a straight line showing noteworthy events progressing onward, a timeline based on the Many-Worlds interpretation would show each possible outcome of each action taken. From there, each possible outcome of the actions taken (as a result of the original outcome) would be further chronicled, resulting in an essentially infinite number of alternate universes.

But a person cannot be aware of his other selves — or even his deaths — that exist in parallel universes. So how could we ever know if the Many-Worlds theory is correct? Assurance that the interpretation is theoretically possible came in the late 1990s from a thought experiment — an imagined experiment used to theoretically prove or disprove an idea — called quantum suicide.

This thought experiment renewed interest in Everett's theory, which many originally considered rubbish. Since Many-Worlds was proven possible, physicists and mathematicians have aimed to investigate the implications of the theory in depth. But the Many-Worlds interpretation is not the only theory that seeks to explain the universe. Nor is it the only one that suggests there are universes parallel to our own. Read the next page to learn about string theory.

The Many-Worlds theory and the Copenhagen interpretation aren't the only competitors ­trying to explain the basic level of the universe. In fact, quantum mechanics isn't even the only field within physics searching for such an explanation.

The theories that have emerged from the study of subatomic physics still remain theories. This has caused the field of study to divide in much the same way as the world of psychology. Theories have adherents and critics, as do the psychological frameworks proposed by Carl Jung, Albert Ellis and Sigmund Freud.

Since their science developed, physicists have been engaged in reverse engineering the universe — they have studied the observable universe and worked backward toward smaller and smaller levels of the physical world. By doing this, physicists are attempting to reach the final and most basic level. It is this level, they hope, that will serve as the foundation for understanding everything else.

Following his famous theory of relativity, Albert Einstein spent the rest of his life looking for the one final level that would answer all physical questions. Physicists refer to this phantom theory as the Theory of Everything. Quantum physicists believe that they are on the trail of finding that final theory. But another field of physics believes that the quantum level is not the smallest level, so it therefore could not provide the Theory of Everything.

These physicists turn instead to a theoretical subquantum level called string theory for the answers to all of life. What's amazing is that through their theoretical investigation, these physicists, like Everett, have also concluded that there are parallel universes.

Originated by Japanese-American physicist Michio Kaku, the string theory says that the essential building blocks of all matter as well as all of the physical forces in the universe — like gravity — exist on a sub-quantum level.

These building blocks resemble tiny rubber bands — or strings — that make up quarks (quantum particles), and in turn electrons, atoms, cells and so on. Exactly what kind of matter the strings create and how that matter behaves depends on the vibration of these strings.

It is in this manner that our entire universe is composed. And according to string theory, this composition takes place across 11 separate dimensions. Like the Many-Worlds theory, string theory demonstrates that parallel universes exist. According to the theory, our own universe is like a bubble that exists alongside similar parallel universes.

Unlike the Many-Worlds theory, string theory supposes that these universes can come into contact with one another. String theory says that gravity can flow among these parallel universes. When these universes interact, a Big Bang — like the one that created our universe — occurs.

While physicists have managed to create machines that can detect quantum matter, the sub-quantum strings have yet to be observed, which makes them — and the theory on which they're built — entirely theoretical. Some have discredited it. However, others continue to believe it is correct.

So do parallel universes really exist? According to the Many-Worlds theory, we can't truly be certain, since we cannot be aware of them. The string theory has already been tested at least once — with negative results. Dr. Kaku still believes parallel dimensions do exist, however [source: The Guardian].

Einstein didn't live long enough to see his quest for the Theory of Everything taken up by others. Then again, if Many-Worlds is correct, Einstein's still alive in a parallel universe. Perhaps in that universe, physicists have already found the Theory of Everything.