Could scientists soon discover a parallel universe?

The 'atom smasher' at Cern in Geneva is now operating at its highest level in a bid to detect miniature black holes, which are considered a key sign of a 'multiverse'. 

And data collected since June is now being analysed. 

The experiment may alarm critics who fear the LHC could bring about the end of the world, but scientists say the ground-breaking experiment could transform our understanding of the universe. 

Just as many parallel sheets of paper, which are two dimensional objects (breath and length) can exist in a third dimension (height), parallel universes can also exist in higher dimensions' Cern employee Mir Faizal from the University of Waterloo told Dailymail.com.

'We predict that gravity can leak into extra dimensions, and if it does, then miniature black holes can be produced at the LHC.'

He said: 'Normally, when people think of the multiverse, they think of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, where every possibility is actualised. 

'This cannot be tested and so it is philosophy and not science.

'This is not what we mean by parallel universes. 

'What we mean is real universes in extra dimensions,' ZME Science reported.

In March, Professor Faizal and his team calculated the energy at which they expect to detect mini black holes in gravity's rainbow.

'If we do detect mini black holes at this energy, then we will know that both gravity's rainbow and extra dimensions are correct,' he explained.

Since June, the energy with which the LHC smashes particles together is twice what it was during the time when it made the discovery of the Higgs boson, making the detection of small black holes possible for the first time.

Billions of particles flying off from each LHC collision are tracked at Cern detectors to establish when and how they come together and what shapes they take. 

The Cern theoreticians say this could give clear signs of dimensions beyond length, breadth, depth and time.

At such high energy gravity many be even tracked disappearing into them.

Parallel universes can exist within these dimensions, the theory goes, but only gravity can leave our universe into these extra dimensions.

If extra dimensions do exist, experts believe they would lower the energy required to produce black holes.

Professor Faizal said in March that the reason these black holes have yet to be detected is because our current model of gravity gets modified at very high energies.

According to Phys.org, in the latest study, the new theory of gravity's rainbow has been used to account for why the LHC has not yet found tiny black holes.

Einstein's theory of relativity states that gravity is caused by space and time curving.

Gravity's rainbow says that space and time curve differently for particles of different energy.

So, gravity's rainbow suggests that gravity's effect on the cosmos causes different wavelengths of light to behave differently.

(dailymail.co.uk)