Also in the news this morning ...
First observational test of the 'multiverse'
Quote:
The theory that our universe is contained inside a bubble, and that multiple alternative universes exist inside their own bubbles – making up the 'multiverse' – is, for the first time, being tested by physicists.
Two research papers published in Physical Review Letters and Physical Review D are the first to detail how to search for signatures of other universes. Physicists are now searching for disk-like patterns in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation - relic heat radiation left over from the Big Bang – which could provide tell-tale evidence of collisions between other universes and our own.
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At the risk of inflaming over-reactions, one of the major problems in designing the test is to overcome selection biases in the sampling of the CMBR/WMAP data used for the tests. (This not being, in any way, the point of this thread … but it is a crucial aspect of the test design).
A significant point is that it would be big news if they ended up ruling out the multiverse theories !
The paper
is here.
Cheers