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ISSN: 1948-9803 (Print)
ISSN: 1948-9811 (Online)
Research Article Open Access

On the Verification of the Multiverse

Thomas Stenersen1
  • 1 Department of Physics, University of Oslo, Norway

Abstract

The interpretation of measurements in quantum mechanics has been disputed for over a century. The scope of this study is to find an experimental test of Everett’s many-worlds interpretation that could potentially verify the existence of a multiverse. Our proposal is based on a quantum field theory formulation of the many-worlds interpretation through the path integral formalism and a careful choice of the vacuum state. By generalizing the earlier quantum suicide thought experiment to quantum field theory, we find that the many-worlds interpretation implies a measurable change in the lifetime of elementary particles.

References

Everett, H. (1957). “Relative State” Formulation of Quantum Mechanics. Reviews of Modern Physics, 29(3), 454–462. https://doi.org/10.1103/revmodphys.29.454
Page, D. N. (2005). The lifetime of the universe. Journal of the Korean Physical Society, 49(2006), 711–714. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.hep-th/0510003
Schrödinger, E. (1935). Die gegenwärtige Situation in der Quantenmechanik. Naturwissenschaften, 23(50), 844–849. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf01491987
Schwartz, M. D. (2014). Quantum Field Theory and the Standard Model. Cambridge University Press.
Tegmark, M. (1998). The Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics: Many Worlds or Many Words? Fortschritte Der Physik, 46(6–8), 855–862. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1521-3978(199811)46:6/8<855::AID-PROP855>3.0.CO;2-Q

Physics International
Volume 13 No. 1, 2022, 17-20

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3844/pisp.2022.17.20

Submitted On: 11 October 2022 Published On: 29 November 2022

How to Cite: Stenersen, T. (2022). On the Verification of the Multiverse. Physics International, 13(1), 17-20. https://doi.org/10.3844/pisp.2022.17.20

Open AccessCopyright: © 2022 Thomas Stenersen. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

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Keywords

  • Quantum Physics
  • Many-Worlds Interpretation
  • Path Integral