Hugh Everett and Parallel Universes

Elmo

I watched a documentary about the relationship between singer/songwriter Mark Oliver Everett and his father Hugh Everett on BBC 4.

It described that protons reside in multiple places at one time. They described the laser test on a piece of film, as a simple example.

I was thinking about this and I came to the conclusion that while protons might reside in multiple places at one time, the order in which they appear would cause each universe to be completely different. In other words this post does not exist in any of the other universes in any form nor do I but the protons that make up this action exist but in multiple sequences.

As I have only seen one documentary on this subject and have read nothing about the subject, I am guessing my theory is possible wrong. But I just wondered if scientists had thought of this idea.

The Cat in the box theory sounded to my like someone was a little too intrigued by Peekaboo as a child. IMO. Ah! by looking at the animation in the stick thread I get this!

magicbastarder

Elmo wrote: »

As I have only seen one documentary on this subject and have read nothing about the subject, I am guessing my theory is possible wrong.

quite a wise conclusion.

Elmo

magicbastarder wrote: »

quite a wise conclusion.

At least I tried

I was hoping for a much more conclusive answer on the subject. Oh! well no point getting interested in Quantum Physics.

magicbastarder

it was just a bit of humour.

what's the rationale for each universe being completely different?

Professor_Fink

Elmo wrote: »

I was thinking about this and I came to the conclusion that while protons might reside in multiple places at one time, the order in which they appear would cause each universe to be completely different. In other words this post does not exist in any of the other universes in any form nor do I but the protons that make up this action exist but in multiple sequences.

Hi Elmo,

Actually your not too far off but you are making a fundamental error (which is made by pretty much everybody, so don't worry). Basically the splitting of universes in this interpretation is not really a descrete process. You have a different universe for every possible position of the proton, so you cant actually count universes (it's more like the number of real numbers than the number of integers). Even if we only consider discrete branching process, if we have 2 particles, each of which can be in one of 2 states, then there are 4 universes to be considered, not 2. This means that there are a lot of universes (technically these are simply branches of the wave function, not universes in the conventional sense). So, there are universes which differ by only the position of a single electron or proton, and there are universes which are completely different.

In fact, we could even define a measure of distance between universes, call it the quantum Hamming distance. Usually the quantum Hamming distance will increase with time (and hence classical physics emerges), but sometimes the come closer and closer until they interfere. This interference is how we notice quantum effects.

Hope this helps.

Elmo

Professor_Fink wrote: »

Actually your not too far off but you are making a fundamental error (which is made by pretty much everybody, so don't worry). Basically the splitting of universes in this interpretation is not really a descrete process. You have a different universe for every possible position of the proton, so you cant actually count universes (it's more like the number of real numbers than the number of integers). Even if we only consider discrete branching process, if we have 2 particles, each of which can be in one of 2 states, then there are 4 universes to be considered, not 2. This means that there are a lot of universes (technically these are simply branches of the wave function, not universes in the conventional sense). So, there are universes which differ by only the position of a single electron or proton, and there are universes which are completely different.

Do we have any idea of what the universe looks like with just one proton out of place?

what's the rationale for each universe being completely different?

The Multiple combinations of how protons can arrange themselves in each universe.

magicbastarder

i think we may be at cross purposes about what you mean by *completely* different; what i had been thinking of was also the example of two universes differing by a single particle.

Elmo

magicbastarder wrote: »

i think we may be at cross purposes about what you mean by *completely* different; what i had been thinking of was also the example of two universes differing by a single particle.

A universe with all protons in a different order would not look at all like this universe, I would assume. And I am not sure if we know what a universe looks like with one proton displaced so therefore I could also conclude that that universe looks different to this one.

From the doc it sounded like if I choose a certain course the protons go in a certain direction for that decision. But had I chosen another direction then the protons arrange themselves for that direction. But this seems to make it out as though we have control over protons.