- Science fiction has long speculated about parallel universes and what they may be like.
- Researchers have devised new experiments to look for how a mirror universe may be influencing our own.
- If such evidence is found, it could bring to light many of the universe's mysteries, such as the nature of dark matter.
In the original Star Trek episode "Mirror, Mirror," the crew of the Enterprise are accidentally transported to a parallel universe. Dubbed the Mirror Universe, its denizens are evil doppelgangers of the crew, complete with garish uniforms, Nazi-like salutes, and full, robust goatees.
Like many concepts first imagined in science fiction, the mirror universe may actually exist, albeit in a far less melodramatic form.
As reported by New Scientist, physicists are busy speculating about our universal reflection, and two experiments are currently underway to search out the empirical evidence. If proof of a mirror universe is found, it may help solve many of physics most intractable questions.
Searching for our own reflection
At the Oak Ridge National Laboratory's traveling science fair, participants can experience life as a ion and then a neutron in a neutron beam. Photo credit: Genevieve Martin / ORNL / Flickr
The first experiment profiled by New Scientist comes courtesy of physicist Leah Broussard and her team at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. They have devised a simple method for detecting a mirror universe.
An apparatus will fire a beam of neutrons at a wall with varying magnetic fields on both sides. These neutrons can't penetrate the wall, yet the researchers have placed a device behind it that will scan the area for these very subatomic particles.
Why? If any neutrons manage to appear behind the wall, it will be strong evidence that they oscillated into mirror neutrons, skipped right on pass the wall because it existed in a different part of the universe, and then oscillated back in time to hit the detection device.
"Only the [neutrons] that can oscillate and then come back into our universe can be detected," Broussard told New Scientist. "When passing through a magnetic field, the oscillation probability increases."
Broussard and her team are looking at neutrons because of a quirk in their decay.
Inside a nucleus, neutrons are perfectly stable, but outside, they decay into a proton, an electron, and an antineutrino of the electron type. Here's the quirk: all free neutrons should decay at the same rate, but that rate changes depending on how scientists measure it.
The first way to measure the lifetime of free neutrons is to isolate them in a "bottle trap" and then count how many remain after a certain amount of time. The second way is to count the protons emerging from a neutron beam generated by a nuclear reactor. Yet, scientists get different rates of decay for each — 14 minutes 39 seconds for the former, 14 minutes 48 seconds for the latter.
A possible explanation for this discrepancy is a mirror universe. Neutrons may have dual citizenship in both universes. When they summer in our neighboring universe, any protons they emit are not detected and therefore not counted in our measurements. This could explain why we see less decay activity in the neutron beam.
Signals in magnetic fields
The second experiment profiled by New Scientist was developed by Klaus Kirch and his team at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland. This team applied magnetic fields of varying strengths to neutrons in a bottle trap.
The goal is to find the telltale signals of mirror magnetic fields. These would suggest neutrons oscillating between universes, potentially supporting any evidence found by Broussard and her team.
"The experimentalist's view is, if it doesn't look completely crazy, can it be tested?" Kirch told New Scientist. "I don't really believe the signals are there, and we have designed an experiment that can disprove them, and we'll see what comes out of it."
Kirch and his team have completed their experiment and are currently analyzing the data.
A mirror darkly
As Yuri Kamyshkov, a mirror matter researcher at the University of Tennessee and a collaborator with Broussard, noted: "The probability of finding anything is low, but it's a simple and inexpensive experiment." Despite the odds, he adds, a positive result would usher in a physics revolution.
A mirror universe could explain many of physics' unsolved mysterious, among them the question of dark matter. As Michio Kaku told Big Think in an interview:
"Dark matter is massive, it has gravity, but it's invisible. It has no interactions with light or the electromagnetic force. So, there is a theory that says that perhaps dark matter is nothing but matter, ordinary matter, in another dimension hovering right above us."
Of course, Kaku points out, this is one of many different theories about dark matter. String theorists think dark matter may be a higher octave of string vibration.
One reason the mirror universe idea is so appealing is the math. Some models suggest a mirror universe would have to have been much cooler than our own during its early evolution. This difference would have made it easier for particles to cross over, resulting in five mirror particles for every regular one. That's roughly the ratio of dark to normal matter.
Scientific models, in the end, must be backed by empirical evidence. We'll have to wait for the results of these and other experiments before determining the probability that a mirror universe exists — let alone if its beard game can match our own.
U.S. Navy ships
The U.S. Navy controls patents for some futuristic and outlandish technologies, some of which, dubbed "the UFO patents," came to light recently. Of particular note are inventions by the somewhat mysterious Dr. Salvatore Cezar Pais, whose tech claims to be able to "engineer reality." His slate of highly-ambitious, borderline sci-fi designs meant for use by the U.S. government range from gravitational wave generators and compact fusion reactors to next-gen hybrid aerospace-underwater crafts with revolutionary propulsion systems, and beyond.
Of course, the existence of patents does not mean these technologies have actually been created, but there is evidence that some demonstrations of operability have been successfully carried out. As investigated and reported by The War Zone, a possible reason why some of the patents may have been taken on by the Navy is that the Chinese military may also be developing similar advanced gadgets.
Among Dr. Pais's patents are designs, approved in 2018, for an aerospace-underwater craft of incredible speed and maneuverability. This cone-shaped vehicle can potentially fly just as well anywhere it may be, whether air, water or space, without leaving any heat signatures. It can achieve this by creating a quantum vacuum around itself with a very dense polarized energy field. This vacuum would allow it to repel any molecule the craft comes in contact with, no matter the medium. Manipulating "quantum field fluctuations in the local vacuum energy state," would help reduce the craft's inertia. The polarized vacuum would dramatically decrease any elemental resistance and lead to "extreme speeds," claims the paper.
Not only that, if the vacuum-creating technology can be engineered, we'd also be able to "engineer the fabric of our reality at the most fundamental level," states the patent. This would lead to major advancements in aerospace propulsion and generating power. Not to mention other reality-changing outcomes that come to mind.
Among Pais's other patents are inventions that stem from similar thinking, outlining pieces of technology necessary to make his creations come to fruition. His paper presented in 2019, titled "Room Temperature Superconducting System for Use on a Hybrid Aerospace Undersea Craft," proposes a system that can achieve superconductivity at room temperatures. This would become "a highly disruptive technology, capable of a total paradigm change in Science and Technology," conveys Pais.
High frequency gravitational wave generator.
Credit: Dr. Salvatore Pais
Another invention devised by Pais is an electromagnetic field generator that could generate "an impenetrable defensive shield to sea and land as well as space-based military and civilian assets." This shield could protect from threats like anti-ship ballistic missiles, cruise missiles that evade radar, coronal mass ejections, military satellites, and even asteroids.
Dr. Pais's ideas center around the phenomenon he dubbed "The Pais Effect". He referred to it in his writings as the "controlled motion of electrically charged matter (from solid to plasma) via accelerated spin and/or accelerated vibration under rapid (yet smooth) acceleration-deceleration-acceleration transients." In less jargon-heavy terms, Pais claims to have figured out how to spin electromagnetic fields in order to contain a fusion reaction – an accomplishment that would lead to a tremendous change in power consumption and an abundance of energy.
According to his bio in a recently published paper on a new Plasma Compression Fusion Device, which could transform energy production, Dr. Pais is a mechanical and aerospace engineer working at the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD), which is headquartered in Patuxent River, Maryland. Holding a Ph.D. from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, Pais was a NASA Research Fellow and worked with Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems. His current Department of Defense work involves his "advanced knowledge of theory, analysis, and modern experimental and computational methods in aerodynamics, along with an understanding of air-vehicle and missile design, especially in the domain of hypersonic power plant and vehicle design." He also has expert knowledge of electrooptics, emerging quantum technologies (laser power generation in particular), high-energy electromagnetic field generation, and the "breakthrough field of room temperature superconductivity, as related to advanced field propulsion."
Suffice it to say, with such a list of research credentials that would make Nikola Tesla proud, Dr. Pais seems well-positioned to carry out groundbreaking work.
A craft using an inertial mass reduction device.
Credit: Salvatore Pais
The patents won't necessarily lead to these technologies ever seeing the light of day. The research has its share of detractors and nonbelievers among other scientists, who think the amount of energy required for the fields described by Pais and his ideas on electromagnetic propulsions are well beyond the scope of current tech and are nearly impossible. Yet investigators at The War Zone found comments from Navy officials that indicate the inventions are being looked at seriously enough, and some tests are taking place.
If you'd like to read through Pais's patents yourself, check them out here.
Laser Augmented Turbojet Propulsion System
Credit: Dr. Salvatore Pais
