Most of the theory's underlying scientific assumptions-such as Albert Einstein's theories of relativity-"all seem kind of innocuous, and it's hard to see what could replace them," Bousso said. "In other words, if you use a cutoff to compute probabilities in eternal inflation, the cutoff itself"-and therefore the end of time-"becomes an event that can happen."ĭespite this odd wrinkle, Bousso and colleagues think eternal inflation is a solid concept. "The same cutoff that gave you these nice and possibly correct predictions also predicts the end of time. "You cannot use as mere mathematical tools that leave no imprint," Bousso said. Physicists have been circumventing this problem using a mathematical approach called geometric cutoffs, which involves taking a finite swath of the multiverse and calculating probabilities based on that limited sample.īut in the new paper, published online last month at the Cornell University website, Bousso's team notes that this technique has an unintended and, until now, overlooked consequence. "If infinitely many observers throughout the universe win the lottery, on what grounds can one still claim that winning the lottery is unlikely?" theoretical physicist Raphael Bousso of the University of California, Berkeley, and colleagues write in the new study. "Normal notions of probability-where you say, Event A happens twice and Event B happens four times, so Event B is twice as likely-don't work, because instead of two and four, you have infinity," said Ken Olum of Tufts University in Massachusetts, who was not involved in the study.Īnd calculating probabilities in a multiverse wouldn't just be a problem for cosmologists. The problem with a multiverse is that anything that can happen will happen an infinite number of times, and that makes calculating probabilities-such as the odds that Earth-size planets are common-seemingly impossible. (Related: "New Proof Unknown 'Structures' Tug at Our Universe.") This vast structure is made up of an infinite number of universes, each of which can spawn an infinite number of daughter universes. The prediction comes from the theory of eternal inflation, which says our universe is part of the multiverse. Our universe has existed for nearly 14 billion years, and as far as most people are concerned, the universe should continue to exist for billions of years more.īut according to a new paper, there's one theory for the origins of the universe that predicts time itself will end in just five billion years-coincidentally, right around the time our sun is slated to die.
0 kommentar(er)
