Neutrons May Be 'Leaking' into Other Universes

A new theory developed by physicist Michael Sarrazin at the University of Namur, in Belgium, argues that there is no known limitation preventing neutrons from leaking into other, parallel universes.

In brane cosmology, numerous universes exist beside our own, bumping against each other and possibly interacting through a variety of means. If that is so, then such a setup could account for the existence of phenomena such as dark energy.

Matter and energy transfer would also be entirely possible, Sarrazin explains. In fact, it is entirely possible to test if this is true with existing technologies, the investigator adds. Such investigations could finally reveal the existence of a broader multidimensional space.

In technical terms, universes existing in parallel sets of dimensions to our own are called braneworlds. Theoretical physicists have been arguing that matter or energy could drill to other branes, but they never had access to technologies advanced enough to help test this idea until now.

One of Sarrazin's proposals was that large magnetic potential may be sufficient to cause stuff to “leap” in a parallel Universe. Interestingly, the expert and his group believe that the Milky Way may develop a sufficiently-large magnetic potential to make this possible.

If this idea is true, then this could be modeled in the lab. In theory, it should be possible for us to observe as matter is leaping back and forth from and into this reality. The most interesting part is that this phenomenon may have already been observed, Technology Review reports.

By analyzing a series of experiments that used ultracold neutrons trapped in magnetic fields, the team found that, if inter-brane leaping occurs, chances of it happening are below one in a million. This does not prove that the phenomenon does not happen, only that it's exceedingly rare.

The issue with the experiments the research group analyzed is that they were not setup to test these predictions, but rather to prove other theories. As such, Sarrazin argues that creating more controlled setups could lead to remarkable discoveries.

If such an experiment is conducted, and inter-brane matter/energy swapping proved to exist, then this would represent the most significant scientific discovery of our time, probably in history. Undoubtedly, a team of scientists somewhere will get to work on this as soon as possible.