Our universe might be merging with 'baby universes', causing it to expand (new study)

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https://www.livescience.com/space/cosmol...y-suggests

EXCERPT: In a new study published Dec. 12, 2023 in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, scientists proposed the idea that the expansion of the universe may be driven instead by constantly merging with other universes.

"The main finding of our work is that the accelerated expansion of our universe, caused by the mysterious dark energy, might have a simple intuitive explanation, the merging with so-called baby universes, and that a model for this might fit the data better than the standard cosmological model," lead study author Jan Ambjørn, a physicist at the Copenhagen University told LiveScience in an email.

While the idea of multiple universes interacting with ours isn't new, this study develops a mathematical model to explore the hypothetical impact of this on the evolution of our universe. The researchers' calculations showed that merging with other universes should increase the volume of our universe, which could be perceived by our instruments as an expansion of the universe.

The scientists also computed the rate of expansion of the universe using their theory, and their calculations more closely fit with observations of the universe than the traditional Standard Cosmological Model, the researchers said... (MORE - missing details)

[Zinjanthropos]

https://www.livescience.com/space/cosmol...y-suggests

EXCERPT: In a new study published Dec. 12, 2023 in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, scientists proposed the idea that the expansion of the universe may be driven instead by constantly merging with other universes.

"The main finding of our work is that the accelerated expansion of our universe, caused by the mysterious dark energy, might have a simple intuitive explanation, the merging with so-called baby universes, and that a model for this might fit the data better than the standard cosmological model," lead study author Jan Ambjørn, a physicist at the Copenhagen University told LiveScience in an email.

While the idea of multiple universes interacting with ours isn't new, this study develops a mathematical model to explore the hypothetical impact of this on the evolution of our universe. The researchers' calculations showed that merging with other universes should increase the volume of our universe, which could be perceived by our instruments as an expansion of the universe.

The scientists also computed the rate of expansion of the universe using their theory, and their calculations more closely fit with observations of the universe than the traditional Standard Cosmological Model, the researchers said... (MORE - missing details)

Would this mean the universe isn’t infinite but infinitely merging? In order to merge is a boundary required?

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Would this mean the universe isn’t infinite but infinitely merging?

"Infinite" in a concrete or non-abstract context would entail a continuing process of growth (addition or division), anyway, since any completed magnitude or quantity would be contradictorily finite. An exception would be when infinite instead means "too numerous to be counted", which refers to a deficiency in human abilities rather than a non-terminating physical circumstance.

In order to merge is a boundary required?

For there to be "multiple universes" requires them to be distinct from each other in some manner (at least before combining). What kind of demarcation provides that is up to the proposals themselves, if they offer any.

https://arxiv.org/pdf/2401.13251.pdf

EXCERPTS: Note that even though the word baby universe has been used here, it does not necessarily mean that the other universes are very small compared to ours, but we use such nomenclature to be in line with the work in [52], which we are following here. Given our consideration for other universes merging with our Universe, we are essentially discussing a multi-universe theory.

[...] by considering a Multiversal scenario, one ends up with a universe which is apparently free from the prominent cosmological singularities and rips. This may point towards the direction of the notion of the Multiverse having some sort of realism too, as the other papers on this topic have also shown that such a universe can accommodate large scale structure and also the Hubble tension...