English

The Multiverse Hierarchy

Popular Physics 2009-05-11 v1

Abstract

I survey physics theories involving parallel universes, arguing that they form a natural four-level hierarchy of multiverses allowing progressively greater diversity. Level I: A generic prediction of inflation is an infinite ergodic universe, which contains Hubble volumes realizing all initial conditions -- including an identical copy of you about 10^(10^29)m away. Level II: In chaotic inflation, other thermalized regions may have different physical constants, dimensionality and particle content. Level III: In unitary quantum mechanics, other branches of the wavefunction add nothing qualitatively new, which is ironic given that this level has historically been the most controversial. Level IV: Other mathematical structures give different fundamental equations of physics. The key question is not whether parallel universes exist (Level I is the uncontroversial cosmological concordance model), but how many levels there are. I discuss how multiverse models can be falsified and argue that there is a severe "measure problem" that must be solved to make testable predictions at levels II-IV.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0905.1283,
  title  = {The Multiverse Hierarchy},
  author = {Max Tegmark},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0905.1283},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

15 pages, 6 figs

R2 v1 2026-06-21T12:59:45.171Z