Travelling the world is a dream that entices us all, whether it’s exploring the Parisian boulevards, Tokyo’s vibrant streets, or Sydney’s iconic harbour. The allure of uncovering new cultures and discovering hidden gems will always call the adventurer within. But what if I told you there’s a chance to go beyond? To journey more than just the continents, but into an entirely new universe? To Illustrate a realm so exceptional that it defies all our imagination, a panorama so captivating that it leaves us standing in awe. All of this sounds great but, how do we get there? What would we greet upon arrival? And most importantly, could this journey from fantasy to reality truly happen?
“Though the idea of superposition is bewildering, it may hold the key to unravelling some of the most profound mysteries of the universe”
In 1935, Erwin Schrödinger came out with a groundbreaking scientific discovery in Quantum Physics. One of the fundamental principles of quantum mechanics is superposition. Quantum superposition is when an electron (a subatomic particle with a negative charge) can be in many places and states at once. This concept still baffles the minds of even the greatest of scientists as it defies all common sense, but Schrödinger gave us a way to visualise it. In 1952, he gave a lecture on quantum superpositioning right here in Trinity where he imagined a box containing a cat with a radioactive element that has an equal chance of killing the cat or leaving it alive. He proposed that after an hour, the cat will be both dead and alive unless the box is opened, where the act of observation will determine the status of the cat. While it defies our intuition, it provides a visual way to understand the strange nature of quantum mechanics. Though the idea of superposition is bewildering, it may hold the key to unravelling some of the most profound mysteries of the universe. This strange aspect of quantum physics may just lead to discoveries we’ve been seeking for centuries.
Could the answer to the puzzling nature of superposition have been hiding in plain sight all along? Everyone knows about the multiverse theory, a hypothetical collection of universes, each with unique or strikingly similar features to our own, which has captured imaginations for decades. The many worlds interpretation (MWI) is the theory that each time an event and superpositioning occurs, every possible result of a quantum event materializes in its own universe. Instead of the chances collapsing to a definite state when an observation is made, the MWI proposes that a whole new branch of the universe emerges. Each branch represents a different outcome, and you are in one of them, experiencing one reality, while other versions of yourself are in different realities experiencing the other outcomes. This theory opens the door to the existence of infinite parallel universes, each with its own story, history, and future. However intriguing this may sound, it is still just a theory and a debate amongst physicists as it challenges our conventional understanding of reality.
So far, we have not found a way to travel between universes (if there are more), but there may be a loophole, or as some might call it – a wormhole. A wormhole warps space time and creates a tunnel allowing us to travel though it. Think of spacetime as a sheet of fabric which we are on. If you want to travel from one point to another, you will have to travel in a straight line along the surface, representing normal travel through space. However, when there is a wormhole, the paper is folded so that the two points touch and create a shortcut through a tunnel between them. It’s a theoretical bridge connecting distant parts of the universe, potentially allowing you to skip the long journey in between. If a wormhole were to be formed exactly on the edges of two universes, we could pick up our spaceships and travel through it just like in the movie Interstellar.
“The legend goes that if you were to go into a black hole, you could come out on the other side of a white hole in a different universe.”
Another way to travel between the universes would be via white holes. We have all heard of black holes, these dark, ominous objects in space which suck in all matter and light in their vicinity. White holes are the total opposite of black holes, they spit stuff out everywhere. The legend (theory) goes that if you were to go into a black hole, you could come out on the other side of a white hole in a different universe.
“As fun as it is to travel across the universes, we are bound to see some strange things”
As fun as it is to travel across the universes, we are bound to see some strange things. There is a theory that if there are an infinite number of universes, there may be a universe that is the parallel version of ours. When the universe was formed, there was an equal amount of antimatter as matter, but now, there is significantly less antimatter and we have no idea why. The twin-world model relates two universes that share symmetry (parallel universe), this universe may have the “disappeared” antimatter. It would be a mirror world containing the same fundamental rules and particles with the exception that your ‘other-world’-self would be made of antimatter and if you were to meet each other, you would annihilate. Unfortunately, as bleak as that sounds, that’s just nature. No matter how amazing a vacation on the diamond hills of Kepler may sound, let’s just stay on Earth for now. As long as we dream, anything can be real.
