Bubble Universes Image caption: title card for the bubble universe multiverse theory, as seen in Niyah and the Multiverse. If we wait and come back to the box, what can we say about the cat without looking into the box? Is it alive or dead? According to our current understanding of quantum theory, the answer is both! We have to take the Many Worlds interpretation seriously no matter how strange and hard it is to wrap our heads around. So the state of the cat is tied directly to the state of a single subatomic particle. If the particle does one thing the cat is killed, if it does another the cat is allowed to live. Inside the box is a device that monitors a single particle. The physicist Erwin Schrödinger envisioned a thought experiment that made this very dramatically clear. Bast is depicted as an ancient Egyptian style cat mummy, staying true to the show’s Afrofuturist style. Image caption: the Adler Planetarium’s example of Schrödinger’s cat, Bast, in Niyah and the Multiverse. The rules of physics still apply even for macroscopic objects. So this isn’t some wild-eyed conspiracy theory! And neither is it simply something crazy that happens in the realm of the ultra-small. It makes predictions that are almost embarrassingly accurate and have been tested over and over again with exquisite precision. Now quantum theory is one of the most precisely tested theories of physics. One way to think of this is that there are actually many versions of reality, “many worlds,” and the “amplitude” tells us what fraction of the universes in the multiverse have the electron in that particular location. But this interpretation isn’t really based on any physics it isn’t what the equations “say.” The most straightforward interpretation is that we were wrong to think of an electron as something that could ever be in any single place. Instead, the equations say that the electron could be in an infinite number of possible positions, each with a different “amplitude.” The standard interpretation of this is that the “amplitude” tells you the probability of the electron being in each location, but that it is really in only one of those locations. You’d expect that the equations would tell you that the electron has moved to a particular other position. Imagine that you take an electron at a particular position, then model it in the equations and let time progress. If you do this process with the equations of quantum theory, you get something really, really puzzling.
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It is a powerful tool and is the basis of science. The mathematical description is called a “model.” You can use the laws of physics to predict how the mathematical “model” will change in the future, and then use the changes to the model to figure out what the real world will look like in the future. You have something happening in the real world and you have to figure out how to describe it in math/physics language. It is basically the same thing as doing a word problem in math class. When you are doing science, one of the most fundamental things you learn is how to go back and forth from the physical real world to the equations that describe the real world. The first multiverse idea that Niyah explores is the “many worlds” interpretation of quantum theory. Text reads “THE MANY WORLD THEORY” in multicolored letters seen in front of a red-orange depiction of a wormhole. Many Worlds Image caption: title card for the many world multiverse theory, as seen in Niyah and the Multiverse. It might get a bit confusing at times, but the trip is worth it. These are deep waters we are wandering into.
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But they are based on honest-to-goodness real science that has real evidence backing it up.
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These aren’t Marvel Cinematic Universe-style multiverses, so don’t expect objects and people popping in and out and between them. In the Adler’s new sky show, Niyah and the Multiverse, we take the viewer on a wild tour of just some of the physical theories that imply that such a multiverse might exist. Our universe may be only a fraction of a much larger multiverse, an assemblage of universes dizzying in its extent. But if you feel small and insignificant, just wait! Even this overwhelming space may be only a tiny part of what is. It may stretch far beyond even what is visible. The universe is vast, almost beyond comprehension: trillions of galaxies with billions of stars and countless planets spread out over a tapestry billions of light-years wide. Geza Gyuk, the Adler Planetarium’s senior director of astronomy. Header image: The Adler Planetarium’s fulldome sky show, Niyah and the Multiverse, which explores multiverse theories like many worlds, bubble universe, and shadow matter.