Papers of graphene reveal that our universe may have a ‘twin brother’

Maybe our universe is just one of many Parallel universes, in an unimaginably vast multiverse (It’s not just Marvel movie writers who would imagine something like this; Scientists too). A new study shows how graphene sheets display patterns similar to those in two interacting universes.

Studying single atomic layers of graphene, research duo Alireza Parhizkar and Victor Galitsky found a strange hexagonal pattern formed by combining the patterns of each individual sheet. By stacking the layers, new electrical behaviors emerged from the interactions between them.

These observed patterns aren’t entirely new – it’s something called a moire pattern (pronounced “muarrê”), which arises when we layer two layers, each with its own pattern, and place them in relative motion with each other. So we see new, distorted patterns.

In the case of stacked graphene sheets, the ripple patterns formed there altered the electrical properties of the structure. In other words, they change the physics that unfolds in the layers, especially the behavior of electrons. The moire pattern is repeated along approximately 52 times the length of the individual patterns.

Moreover, the energy level that controls the behavior of electrons drops unexpectedly, allowing for other properties such as superconductivity. The pair then believed that this reaction could introduce new physics that would also reveal itself in the overlapping layers of two interacting worlds (or universes).

It might seem a bit random, but it makes sense from a mathematical point of view – and it worked in the simulations conducted in the study. Galitsky and Bariskar reinterpreted the physics observed in the papers as occurring in two-dimensional universes where electrons occasionally jump from one to the other. So they applied the same math to universes of any number of dimensions (including four, like ours).

So they explored and studied whether phenomena similar to moiré patterns in graphene sheets could appear in other areas of physics. “We discussed whether we could observe the physics of moire when two real worlds merge into one,” Parhizkar said. “First, you have to know the length scale of each universe.”

Void disaster

When Parhizkar mentions the scale of length, he is referring to the length of the board – the shortest possible length in measurements related to Quantum mechanics. At measurements less than the length of the plank, quantum mechanics fails to predict the behavior of particles. That’s when scientists say “mathematics crashes”. An example is The singularity that resides at the heart of black holes.

The Planck length is also related to something called the cosmological constant, which is included in the field equations of general relativity from Albert Einstein. The problem with this constant is that the universe has both gravitational and quantum properties, two theories that, although proven many times, are still incompatible when trying to unify them.

This problem of the cosmological constant, also known as the “vacuum catastrophe”, reveals the differences between the observed values ​​of vacuum energy density and zero point energy, proposed by quantum field theory. We don’t need to understand the technical details, but the discrepancy between the values ​​is 120 orders of magnitude. Physicists consider this to be the greatest contradiction between theory and experiment in all of the sciences.

How does graphene help solve the problem?

It’s still too early to say if the problem has actually been resolved – even the authors of the new research admit that it would be “arrogant” to say anything at this point. But the coincidence was too big to ignore, and it’s at least considered a mathematical “curiosity.”

The pair created a model based on the electrical changes of graphene sheets, and with it showed that two interacting worlds with a large common cosmological constant can exceed the expected behavior of individual cosmological constants in each of these worlds. This common cosmological constant would be much smaller than the odd constant.

this is interesting. The study shows us that if the moiré patterns of two universes are real, we can have two universes with gigantic cosmological constants — something like 120 orders of magnitude larger than what we observe in our own — and by combining them, we can get a very small cosmological constant As a result of this interaction.

Note that 120 orders of magnitude is the value of the “vacuum disaster” discrepancy. This means that our universe can have a cosmological constant as large as this, but another value that is very small, due to the interaction with a parallel universe. It works so well that it looks like an arithmetic “trick”.

“We never claim that this solves the problem of the cosmological constant,” Parhizkar says. The more detailed model of the binary still suggests that these parallel universes can imprint a distinct imprint on the cosmic microwave background, so it might be something that scientists could one day look at to prove the idea (or not, in case it’s wrong).

“Personally, I don’t put my hopes in it – I really think it’s too big to be true,” Parhizkar said. But the study is interesting to say the least, and it resulted in it being published in the journal Physical Review Research.

source: Physical Review ResearchAnd Joint Quantum InstituteAnd resonance science institute