Related papers: The Multiverse and Particle Physics
The current debate about a possible change of paradigm from a single universe to a multiverse scenario could have deep implications on our view of cosmology and of science in general. These implications therefore deserve to be analyzed from…
Evidence for fine-tuning of physical parameters suitable for life can perhaps be explained by almost any combination of providence, coincidence or multiverse. A multiverse usually includes parts unobservable to us, but if the theory for it…
The idea of a multiverse -- an ensemble of universes or universe domains -- has received increasing attention in cosmology, both as the outcome of the originating process that generated our own universe, and as an explanation for why our…
This paper evaluates some important aspects of the multiverse concept. Firstly, the most realistic opportunity for it which is the spacetime variability of the physical constants and may deliver worlds with different physics, hopefully…
The possibility that the multiverse corresponds to physical reality deserves serious investigation. Having three different important theories,(quantum mechanics, string theory and inflation), predict the existence of the multiverse is…
Current problems in particle physics are reviewed from the viewpoint of theories possessing extra spatial dimensions.
Many of the classic problems of particle physics appear in a very different light when viewed from the perspective of the multiverse. Most importantly the two great ``fine tuning'' problems that motivate the field are far less serious when…
The physical processes that determine the properties of our everyday world, and of the wider cosmos, are determined by some key numbers: the 'constants' of micro-physics and the parameters that describe the expanding universe in which we…
Valid ideas that physical reality is vastly larger than human perception of it, and that the perceived part may not be representative of the whole, exist on many levels and have a long history. After a brief general inventory of those ideas…
The answer to the question in the title is: in search of new physics beyond the Standard Model, for which there are many motivations, including the likely instability of the electroweak vacuum, dark matter, the origin of matter, the masses…
Modern fundamental physics poses new questions for philosophy, which, as it seems to us, have not yet received appropriate attention from philosophers of science. This paper formulates a number of such questions in order to present them to…
In this paper we work out a multiverse scenario whose physical characteristics enable us to advance the following the conjecture that whereas the physics of particles and fields is confined to live in the realm of the whole multiverse…
Six major frameworks have emerged attempting to describe particle physics beyond the Standard Model. Despite their different theoretical genera, these frameworks have a number of common phenomenological features and problems. While it will…
The possibility that spacetime is extended beyond the familiar 3+1-dimensions has intrigued physicists for a century. Indeed, the consequences of a dimensionally richer spacetime would be profound. Recently, new theories with higher…
New features are described for models with multi-particle area-dependent potentials, in any number of dimensions. The corresponding many-body field theories are investigated for classical configurations. Some explicit solutions are given,…
Higher-dimensional theories of the kind which may unify gravitation with particle physics can lead to significant modifications of general relativity. In five dimensions, the vacuum becomes non-standard, and the Weak Equivalence Principle…
The physical models of a successful unified theory about the Universe must operate in different phase of matter evolution and different fields of physics. The attempts to build such wide range theory as a bunch of theories developed for…
In the multiverse hypothesis, a range of universes exist with differing values of our physical constants. Here, we investigate how the probabilities of observing our values of these constants depend on the assumptions made about the…
I briefly describe two motivations, two mechanisms and two possible tests of the hypothesis that the physical parameters of the ground state of a theory can vary in different regions of the universe.
The Standard Model of Particle Physics has been verified to unprecedented precision in the last few decades. However there are still phenomena in nature which cannot be explained, and as such new theories will be required. Since terrestrial…