SoylentNews

AnonTechie [soylentnews.org] writes:

Prof Stephen Hawking's final research paper suggests that our Universe may be one of many similar to our own. The theory resolves a cosmic paradox of the late physicist's own making. It also points a way forward for astronomers to find evidence of the existence of parallel universes. The study was submitted to the Journal of High-Energy Physics [springer.com] 10 days before Prof Hawking died.

[...] A crisis arises because if there are infinite types of universes with infinite variations in their laws of physics then the theory cannot predict what kind of universe we should find ourselves in. Prof Hawking joined forces with Prof Thomas Hertog at KU Leuven in Belgium, who is funded by the European Research Council to try to resolve this paradox.

[...] Prof Hawking's final paper is the fruit of 20 years' work with Prof Hertog. It has solved the puzzle by drawing on new mathematical techniques developed to study another esoteric branch of physics called string theory. These techniques enable researchers to view physics theories in a different way. And the novel assessment of the Hartle-Hawking theory in the new paper has restored order to a hitherto chaotic multi-verse. The new Hawking-Hertog assessment indicates that there can only be universes that have the same laws of physics as our own.

That conjecture means that our Universe is typical and so observations we make from our viewpoint will be meaningful in developing our ideas of how other universes emerged. Mind-bending as these ideas are, they will be of real help to physicists as they develop a more complete theory of how the Universe came into being, according to Prof Hertog.

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-43976977 [bbc.com]

[Also Covered By]:

LiveScience [livescience.com]

BGR Media [bgr.com]

CNN [cnn.com]

Discover Magazine [discovermagazine.com]

Space.Com [space.com]

Original Submission