Science

One Universe Is Not Enough

The Universalist

The Universalist

— 14 min read
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One Universe Is Not Enough
Temperature map of the cosmic microwave background radiation, produced by the Planck satellite. This is the "afterglow of the Big Bang." Differences in colour (temperature) correspond to tiny fluctuations in the density of matter in the early universe. Through the force of gravity, these gave rise.

FR PROF. MICHAŁ HELLER, cosmologist: The mathematics underlying multiverse theory can enchant. But some people find these concepts infuriating.

By Fr Michał Heller, Łukasz Kwiatek, Tomasz Miller

ŁUKASZ KWIATEK, TOMASZ MILLER: How did it come about that science started talking about the "multiverse" — the existence of universes other than our own?

MICHAŁ HELLER: We need to go back to the 1970s. At that time, a very live problem in cosmology was the question of the initial singularity — whether it existed or not. The prevailing opinion was that the singularity was merely a mathematical artefact, with no physical phenomenon corresponding to it.

Let's explain right away what the initial singularity is.

Its popular name is the Big Bang. It refers to the universe beginning, theoretically, from a single point of enormous density and energy, and then expanding — which might resemble an explosion. The mathematical counterpart of this is a singularity, a state in which certain physical quantities tend toward infinity. Besides the Big Bang, singularities also appear elsewhere in cosmology — inside black holes. When a star collapses under its own gravity to form a black hole, certain quantities, such as density or spacetime curvature, also tend toward infinity.

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