Proof of the Multiverse

Kristian Dolghier

Professor Maxim Sukharev

Fabric of the Universe

The concept that all theories and laws are coming together to create an almost unified theory of everything is what appears to be happening in the world as a whole. Concepts are being refined, all particles might be made up of the same elementary particle, and yet there are several hurdles to overcome to achieve a unified theory. As we discover new experiments to do, we make new equipment to conduct those experiments which expands our knowledge. With more knowledge comes more questions; this book is one answer to one such question. What is the multiverse and how can it interact with us?

To truly understand the proof for the multiverse, we must first understand what the multiverse is, how it acts and finally how these characteristics affect us currently in our own world. The multiverse in layman's terms is the idea that there is an infinite amount of parallel universes that branch off from each other at every single difference. At different decisions, at a different outcome, and at a different molecular placement a different universe exists. One where a singular outcome happens, and the other when the other outcome happens. At every further change, there is a different universe formed which causes an infinite amount of universes that can not necessarily interact with each other.

The main crux of the evidence for this theory is specifically in the dual slit interaction and how this interaction occurs at very slow interference rates. Let's elaborate. When shining a laser onto a dual slit, there is an interference pattern formed behind it with different peaks and troughs of light intensity. The most important question in this case is how is the interference pattern formed. When one photon nears the dual slits it has a supposed choice whether it should go into the left or the right slit. This probability under ideal conditions is 50%. Then after it passes through the dual slit, the photon is treated as a wave-hence the particle wave duality of all particles- and interacts with the waves of photons from the other slit. This interaction, like two waves in a pond will form some areas where the light cancels out, and some areas where the waves double in intensity. "Either photon alone would have hit X, but the two together interfere with each other so that they both end up elsewhere."(D, 33) So according to the author the reason when there is light at 'X' in a dual slit and not in a four slit interference pattern is due to the fact that the two photons would have both hit 'X' in a four slit pattern but they interfere negatively and instead increased the intensity of the other constructive interferences.

This is how the dual slit interaction works in theory according to this book, however lets start decreasing the amount of photons exiting the laser. Now one photon exits every day. When this one photon exits, it then interacts with the dual slit and either goes through the left or the right slit. It then will pass through and hit the paper on the back which will keep track of all the final locations of all the photons. If we keep on repeating this experiment and tally up where each photon hit on the paper behind the dual slit, we can see that it does indeed result in a dual slit interference pattern-given enough time. If we repeat this exact experiment with four slits, a four slit interference pattern will appear. The main question is how does this interference pattern occur?

The flow of logic is the following. The reason that a dual slit will result in interference patterns and not just a penumbra/umbra from the left and right slits is due to the wave nature of photons. This results in two waves emanating from each slit and the points of interaction-where they 'cross'-are the locations of bright spots on the paper. This interaction from other light waves is the only reason for the interference pattern; albeit given some leeway due to errors and other interferences such as photons glancing off the side of the slit itself. Therefore there must be something else at each other slit that will at all times interfere with the photon and only the photon to create the interference pattern. This cannot be due to any other effect due to the fact that the photon cannot split up and have the knowledge that there are 2, 4 or n number of slits. "We have found that when one photon passes through this apparatus, it passes through one of the slits, and then something interferes with it, deflecting it in a way that depends on what other slits are open; the interfering entities have passed through some of the other slits; the interfering entities behave exactly like photons... except that they cannot be seen." (D, 35) Hence the concept of a shadow photon.

These so-called shadow photons are in an abundance of trillions in every location and can only interact with photons. "Therefore there must be at least a trillion shadow photons accompanying each tangible one." (D, 36) Now we have some loose justification for the existence of shadow photons so we must understand how they interact with photons. However, these shadow photons can only interact with tangible photons and other shadow materials-such as shadow neutrons, shadow protons, etc. This is due to the fact that there is no physical material known that can detect these shadow photons, we can only observe their interactions with photons. Therefore the logical next step is that at the same location of the tangible barrier there must be a shadow barrier made up of shadow atoms which stop the shadow photons. "Each shadow photon encounters much the same sort of barrier as its tangible counterpart does, a barrier consisting of only a tiny proportion of all the shadow atoms that are present."(D,37) From the authors' logic each shadow atom in this barrier only interacts with a small proportion of the other other shadow atoms and the ones that do interact form a shadow barrier.

Now the main issue is, how are there trillions upon trillions of shadow photons at every single part of the universe and how can these be so prevalent. The author deals with this issue in the following way: he states that there is no start or end to time. "Why is it hard to accept that there are no moments before the Big Bang or after the Big Crunch, so that nothing happens, or exists, there? Because it is hard to imagine time coming to a halt, or starting up. But then, time does not have to come to a halt or start up, for it does not move at all. The multiverse does not 'come into existence' or 'cease to exist'; those terms presuppose the flow of time. It is only imagining the flow of time that makes us wonder what happened 'before' or 'after' the whole of reality." (D,190)

Time existed before the big bang and will exist forever. However, when we compared parallel universes to each other we cannot assume that they occurred at the same time. There is no multi-universal clock that we can compare each universe to. "Time is not a sequence of moments, nor does it flow."(D,191) Therefore, at all locations, there are shadow particles from all other universes and this is not dependent upon time as they cannot be compared time wise to us. This, in addition to the infinite amount of other universes, guarantees that even in the depths of space, in between universes where there are only a few atoms in every square meter, there will still be trillions of shadow particles there to interact with for this experiment. Similarly, there is no multi-universal GPS positioning system for all the universes so it is not illogical to assume that each parallel universe interacts with each other at all locations in the universe. The fabric of the multiverse can twist and change and every location will have different parallel universes interacting with ours at all times.

This is the core justification for the existence of multiverses and how the dual slit experiment can show us whether or not such a thing exists. The authors bring up thought provoking experiments on the nature of quantum computing and universal computers. Specifically quantum computers which use the interaction of particles between our universe and other multiverses to offload some level of the computations required and similarly have the opportunity to answer questions that our silicon based processors are fundamentally not allowed to compute. As thought provoking and intriguing as these experiments with computers are, there are still several issues that I, a layman, can see with shadow particles.

There are several fundamental problems with the explanation of shadow photons interacting with photons in a dual slit experiment. The first is how are the shadow photons the exact same energies and wavelengths as the photons they interfere with. If they have different intensities and such, the interference pattern would not remain the same. To elaborate on this issue, if an experiment was conducted with incredibly high energy photons, e.g. X-Rays, would there be a shadow photon with the same energy there to interact as well? However, this problem is rather minor as we could assume for argument's sake that since there are trillions of shadow photons in that location, only the one with the exact same energy will interact.

One of the bigger problems that I can see is why are there only some of the shadow particles interacting among themselves and only some interacting with other shadow particles. As I explain in an earlier paragraph, the author believes that the shadow barrier exists exactly where the tangible barrier exists and only consists of a tiny proportion of all the shadow atoms which are present. There is no explanation for the method behind this, or why seemingly the shadow particles making up the barrier only exist where there is already a barrier in the real world. Let's assume for brevity's sake that shadow particles can only affect shadow photons where there is already a physical barrier. According to our own logic there are trillions of shadow atoms at all locations but in the space between the dual slits and the paper which the photon is recorded on there is no effect due to the shadow particles.

To elaborate even further upon this problem, the author states that only some of the shadow particles in the tangible barrier affect the shadow photon. There is no explanation after reading the whole book on why this is the case. If there can only be shadow particles where there are tangible particles then how are the shadow photons being generated and affecting the tangible photons. According to the author's own thought process, it would only be logical if the tangible photon was paired with shadow photons but this would result in no different data at all.

There are deep and fundamental issues that need to be discussed and formatted in order to understand what multiverse theory really is and what it implies about our understanding of reality. This book was published in 1998 so there is hope that since then some of the problems above have become solved and been explained. This is not to discount the later theories of time, life, and quantum computers as those seem relatively sound if you assume that the multiverse really does exist. Sadly, too few pages were dedicated to discussing the basic physics and far too much was spent discussing philosophy and the ramifications of those ideas.

In order to prove whether or not this theory exists we must find out how photons form diffraction patterns due to dual slit interactions. Are they really formed by constructive and describe wave patterns which result in the pattern, or are they formed by a different process. If there is another process there that does not depend on two or more photons interacting with each other to form interference patterns there is the problem of the transfer of information. How can a photon 'know' that there are two or four slits and based upon that knowledge have a different interference pattern. There must be a transfer of knowledge as without this, the pattern formed would be nonexistent.

There are substantial arguments, thought processes, and observations hidden under the overwhelming theme of philosophy and the ideals of an imperfect world. The concepts of virtual reality, universal computation, and the quantum theory of time are far beyond their time and deserve to be analyzed based on their own merit independent of whether or not the multiverse exists. The interaction between the multiverse is highly specialized and is very difficult to detect, such as dark matter, but should be written off due to the fact that it seems outlandish and highly difficult to even conceptualize. Deutsch even brings this up as he believes that the theory which explains all situations to an accurate degree should be the championing theory. We may be moving to a universal theory of everything, but for now the concepts and knowledge needed to find this theory seem abstract.