Imagine that You could explain everything in this Universe, from the behavior of sub-atomic particles to the functioning of giant structures like starts, galaxies & black holes, everything with one theory, with one equation. This is the dream which has captivated the most brilliant & intelligent minds since Einstein. But it is as old saying that be careful what you wish for, because you might get it. And it fits in the scenario of scientists finding a single explanation of everything, because In the quest of finding one theory; the theory of everything, physicists found something amazing & astonishing, something mind-blogging; they found that there might be other universes out there and some of them may exactly be like ours.
Almost around one and a half decade ago, String theory emerged, which had a perception that it might be the theory of everything. According to this theory, everything is made up of tiny strings of energy, much smaller than quarks. and these strings exists in 9 spatial dimensions and 1 dimension of time, they vibrate at different frequencies and move in different ways which determine the form of matter they'd generate. It should be noted that we live in 3 spatial dimensions, So 6 extra spatial dimensions were described by the string theory. It was tested again and again and it explained everything perfectly which gave the scientists an impression that the string theory might really be the theory of everything. But for a theory to be a theory of everything, it should explain the singularity or what happened just before big bang. Amazingly, string theory explained formation of matter, atoms and nuclei and events that happened something like 0.35 seconds after the big bang, it was a great achievement. But the problem was that five different string theories emerged. Each one claiming to be the right one. This made the string theory to lose its grip and physicists started to believe that the string theory couldn't be the theory of everything. This was a disaster because physicists spent decades working on the string theory. However, some out casts and out laws didn't give up. They were in a very small number and spent years trying to figure out the solution. And finally Michael Duff, presently a professor in the University of Michigan, who worked alone for ten years, came up with a solution. When he added one more dimension in the math of all the five string theories, they merged to give a one single theory, which was later named as 'M theory'. This was a giant leap forward in the quest of finding the theory of everything. But adding one dimension in string theory, changed the string itself. The strings were no more strings anymore, they stretched and made the strings more like a membrane. This 11th dimension is said be smaller than 10 to the power -20 millimeters. And on the basis of M theory, Physicists claim that there are membranes in the hyperspace and when some part of one membrane collide with some part of other membrane, a giant explosion occurs, just like the big bang and a Universe is born.
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| Membranes in hyperspace |
The M theory not only revived the idea of Multiverse, it also explained how a universe is born. Furthermore, the extra dimensions brought to light; an astonishing and amazing possibility and it was one step forward in the idea of Multiverse; the idea of parallel existence. Physicists claim that the particles exist in more than one places at a single point of time. It has been tested experimentally in case of electrons. As everything is made up of these particles, everything which exists in this universe exists in probably infinite number of other universes too. I'm using the term infinite because strings can acquire infinite orientations in the hidden dimensions. And for each orientation, its another universe. (read the previous post on Multiverse)
Physicists claim that everything that can happen, will happen. But in a parallel universe, a parallel reality. But we live through only one reality at a time. To understand what I mean, Imagine that a man had a job interview but he woke up late and missed the interview. It is possible that he might've gotten the job which could've changed his entire career and lifestyle but he missed that opportunity. He is now having a moderate job with a moderate salary but in a parallel universe, he acted more responsibly and reached for the interview in time and got the job. And he is enjoying a great life in that parallel reality. It was upon him to wake up late or early that morning, it was his own decision. The reality for him in both cases was decided but he only lives through one, depending on the choice he made at that point. Similarly, there are infinite number of parallel realities for us at each point of time, depending on the choices we make. But we only live through one at one time. Or one set of realities throughout our life. Its not that they do not exist. They do exist somewhere out there but we just cannot observe or interact with them. So anything that can happen will happen in a parallel universe. Out of infinite amount of parallel universes out there, In one of them, Einstein may still be alive. Or U.S.A may be a colony of British Empire. In one, you might be rock star. In one, you were never born.
Although, the idea that there are infinite number of parallel realties for each of us at each point of time is very hard to put up with. But for those who allow their imaginations to roll, it is a very fascinating idea. When we think of the size of a grain of sand at one end and imagine infinite number of stars in one galaxy and then infinite number of galaxies in the Universe at the other end, it is not very hard to believe that there might be infinite number of universes too, and then infinite number of realities for each of us. Nothing is wrong with that. We always thought how destiny works and if it has already been decided, what is in our hands to do with our lives? At least science has given us the answer to this question.
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