Smithsonian: Physics theories can get pretty hairy, but don’t worry: If our universe isn’t the only one—if in fact there are an infinite number of universes out there—then in at least one of them you are a brilliant theoretical physicist that kinda gets this stuff. The idea of a multiverse comes up in a number of different physics theories. For example, if space-time stretches to infinity, then at some point it starts repeating itself. As Clara Moskowitz writes for Space.com, "So if you look far enough, you would encounter another version of you, in fact, infinite versions of you." Another idea: parallel universes might be just beyond our own in another dimension.
All this may be comforting—endless possibilities—or uninspiring: What’s the point if these other selves are so far away or completely hidden? Well, a new theory posits that other universes may not be so separate from our own at all. Quantum physicist Howard Wiseman and his colleagues just proposed a new "many interacting worlds" theory in the journal Physical Review X. Their theory helps explain that some of the very weird physics we can observe at the quantum level—"bizarre quantum effects such as particles that tunnel through solid barriers," they write—might be explained by another universe, or world, interacting with our own....
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