III. Ecosmos: A Revolutionary Fertile, Habitable, Solar-Bioplanet, Incubator Lifescape

5. ExoUniverse Studies: Detectable Presence, Conceptual Features

Sandora, McCullen. Multiverse Predictions for Habitability: The Number of Stars and their Properties. arXiv:1901.04614. A Tufts University postdoctoral cosmologist (search) provides an extensive review of an implied spatial and temporal presence of multitudinous, contingent universes, along with conjectural properties. It opens with a reevaluation of 1960s (Frank) Drake equation factors of stars in a cosmos, planetary systems, how many likely habitable, can life then evolve, reach intelligence, and finally an anthropic civilization as our own. A half century later, a major change is that exoworlds of all kinds are the common case. Sandora cites solar photosynthesis as another vital feature, along with stellar varieties such as red dwarfs, tidal locking on a planet without a moon, and more. Future entries (1902.06784, 1903.06283) consider probable habitable worlds, evolutionary courses, and a global acumen able to perform a cosmic function of self-description, illumination, and sustainability.

In a multiverse setting, we expect to be situated in a universe that is exceptionally good at producing life. Though the conditions for what life needs to arise and thrive are currently unknown, many will be tested in the coming decades. Here we investigate several different habitability criteria, and their influence on multiverse expectations: Does complex life need photosynthesis? Is there a minimum timescale necessary for development? Can life arise on tidally locked planets? Are convective stars habitable? Variously adopting different stances on each of these criteria can alter whether our observed values of the fine structure constant, the electron to proton mass ratio, and the strength of gravity are typical to high significance. This serves as a way of generating predictions for the requirements of life that can be tested with future observations, elevating the multiverse scenario to a predictive scientific framework. (Abstract)

Until this point, we have considered the number of observers throughout universes with different microphysical constants and, weighing against the expected relative frequencies of
such universes in a generic multiverse context, have determined the probability of measuring the three values of our constants as they are. Our findings show that these probabilities depend sensitively on the precise requirements for habitability that are assumed, as we have demonstrated by separately considering the expectations that complex life is proportional to the number of stars, that it is dependent on photosynthesis, the absence of tidal locking, that it can only arise around tame stars, that it requires a certain length of time to develop, and that its presence is proportional to the total amount of entropy processed by the system. (22-23)

Sandora, McCullen, et al. Multiverse Predictions for Habitability: Planetary Characteristics.. arXiv:2302.12376. With this entry we cite four new papers which are a collegial update to Dr. Sandora’s prior 2019 postings across a multiversal scenario (search). In regard, three more senior cosmologists, Vladimir Airapetian, NASA Goddard, Luke Barnes, Western Sydney University, and Geraint Lewis, University of Sydney, expand, embellish and advance these awesome contributions. Along with the above topic, they are Element Abundances (2302.10919), Stellar and Atmospheric Habitability (2303.03119), and Origin of Life Scenarios (2303.02678). We next post Abstract excerpts for a flavorable sense of their content.

In more regard, from any planatural philosophy vista, we ought to register how fantastic it is that our infinitesimal Earthuman collective beingness can yet be able to evolve, emerge, explore, quantify and evaluate such infinite celestial reaches. Who really are we, what precestral, innate function and role are we intended to serve in and of a participatory ecosmic genesis. One could go on, a grand, salutary realization seems to awaits for our pediaverse asking and seeing.

Recent detections of potentially habitable exoplanets around sunlike stars invite further exploration of the physical conditions that can sustain life. Insight into these conditions, we contend, can be aided by the multiverse hypothesis whereof the probability of living in our universe depends on assumptions that affect relative habitability. Here, we show that a multiverse scenario does induce strong preferences among them. For example, we consider proposed mechanisms for water delivery to the early Earth both during giant planet formation and a grand tack, from comets, and oxidation of a primary atmosphere by a magma ocean. (Planetary Characteristics)

If the origin of life is rare and sensitive to the local conditions at the site of its emergence using the principle of mediocrity within a multiverse framework, we may expect to find ourselves in a universe that is better than usual at creating these necessary conditions. We use this reasoning to investigate several origins of life including the prebiotic soup, hydrothermal vents, prebiotic material from impacts, and panspermia. We find that most induce a preference toward weaker-gravity universes, and solar radiation or large impacts as a disequilibrium source are disfavored. (Origin of Life)

Stellar activity and planetary atmospheres can strongly influence habitability. To date, neither have been adequately studied in the multiverse context, so there has not been as assessment of how these effects impact our fundamental constants. Here, we consider the effects of solar wind, mass loss, and extreme ultra-violet flux on atmospheres and how they scale with physical parameters. We consider whether planetary magnetic fields are necessary for habitability, and find five boundaries in parameter space where magnetic fields are precluded. (Stellar and Atmospheric Habitability)

We investigate the dependence of elemental abundances on physical constants, and the implications this has for the distribution of complex life for various habitability criteria. We consider three main sources of variation: differing supernova rates, alpha burning in massive stars, and isotopic stability, and their effect on metal-to-rock ratio and the abundances of carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur, silicon, magnesium, and iron. Our results indicate that carbon-rich or carbon-poor planets are uninhabitable, slightly magnesium-rich planets are habitable, and life does not depend on nitrogen levels too sensitively. If any of these predictions are found to be wrong, the multiverse scenario would predict that the majority of observers are born in universes substantially different from ours, and so can be ruled out, to varying degrees of statistical significance. (Element Abundances)

Scharpe, Charlie, et al. On Cosmological Low Entropy after the Big Bang: Universal Expansion and Nucleosynthesis. arXiv:2302.03988.. CS, a University of Sydney astronomer, is joined by US colleagues Luke Barnes and Geraint Lewis so to continue their whole scale studies across these widest spacescapes. Along with M. Sandora et al (search), an ecosmic scenario proceeds apace with its own internal self-description, which it seems to require, by virtue of our incredible Earthuman expertise.

We investigate the sensitivity of a universe's nuclear entropy after Big Bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) to variations in both the baryon-to-photon ratio and the temporal evolution of cosmological expansion. We find that, while the post-BBN nuclear entropy is indeed linked to baryogenesis and the Universe's expansion history, the requirement of leftover light elements does not place strong constraints on the properties of these two cosmological processes. (Excerpt)

Siegfried, Tom. The Number of the Heavens: A History of the Multiverse and the Quest to Understand the Cosmos. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2019. The senior science writer about physics and information (search) here provides a detailed recount of man’s (some 275 male names in the index, one primary woman Lisa Randell) historic wonderments about our starry raiment. Its compass runs from Aristotle and Atomists to Robert Grosseteste in the 13th century onto Copernicus, Nicholas of Cusa, Newton, Galileo, and company as horizons expanded from a sun and moon. Circa 1900, Alfred Wallace’s cosmos had our solar system at its center. The 20th century went on to reveal a galactic universe, its inflationary origin, temporal nucleosynthesis. By 2000, via quantum, string, and other theories, a wider presence became implied and/or required of multiple cosmoses with widely different, contingent properties. Anthropic explanations whence such parameters can be explained because they permit life and intelligence to appear are duly chronicled. As 2020 nears, if one might turn and reflect, how fantastic is this scenario which aware human beings upon a minute ovoworld have at last come to realize.

Szigeti, Balazs, et al. Can universe rotation solve the Hubble Puzzle? Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 538/4, 2025. We cite this entry by Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest and University of Hawaii astrophysicists as an April example of Earthuman abilities to cast our collaborative quantifications to the whole evolutionary ecosmos by which to recognize its movements. How fantastic is it then that a planetary species on a tiny mote can personally and on a planetarity scale explore and learn about such vast reaches. Who are we Earthlings, what is Earthica’s spaceplace, and for what phenomenal reason are we moved and capable to do this?

For a further contrast, we note this paper, Lunar Occultations of Planets and Eclipses of Jupiter's Satellites by the Edinburgh Observatory, in volume 4 of this British journal from 1838 and 187 years later Structure growth in f (Q) cosmology by Shambel Sahlu, Álvaro de la Cruz-Dombriz and Amare Abebe in a 2025 edition (539/2).

The discrepancy between low and high redshift Hubble constant H0 measurements is the highest significance tension within the concordance Lambda cold dark matter paradigm. If not due to unknown systematics, the Hubble Puzzle suggests a lack of understanding of the universe’s expansion history despite the otherwise success of the theory. We show that a Gödel inspired slowly rotating dark-fluid variant of the concordance model resolves this tension.

The Hubble tension, the inconsistency of the late and early time measurements of the universe’s expansion rate, emerges as a chink in the Lambda cold dark matter (⁠ΛCDM) model The discrepancy has reached a 5σ significance between cepheid-calibrated local supernovae and the cosmic microwave background (CMB). The idea that everything revolves naturally extends to the whole universe, based on recent claims of anisotropic Hubble expansion in X-ray observation. (Sample quotes)

Tamm, Martin. The Thermodynamical Arrow and the Historical Arrow. Entropy. Online August, 2017. The University of Stockholm mathematician advances this project by way of reviewing many past studies over the decades by Ilya Prigogine, David Layzer, Mario Castagnino and others within a nascent 2010s scenario of a Combinatorial Multiverse.

In this paper, the relationship between the thermodynamic and historical arrows of time is studied. In the context of a simple combinatorial model, their definitions are made more precise and in particular strong versions (which are not compatible with time symmetric microscopic laws) and weak versions (which can be compatible with time symmetric microscopic laws) are given. This is part of a larger project that aims to explain the arrows as consequences of a common time symmetric principle in the set of all possible universes. However, even if we accept that both arrows may have the same origin, this does not imply that they are equivalent, and it is argued that there can be situations where one arrow may be well-defined but the other is not. (Abstract)

Terasawa, Ryo, et al. Separate universe approach to evaluate nonlinear matter power spectrum for non-flat ΛCDM model. arXiv:2205.10339. We cite this entry by four Japanese cosmologists as an example of how the latest Earthuman science is able to extend its compass to myriad other cosmoses. See also Likelihood Criteria for the Universe by Ezequiel Lopez-Rubio at 2206.0097 for another take.

The spatial curvature of the universe is a fundamental quality that could give a link to its early physics. We develop a method to compute the nonlinear matter power spectrum for "non-flat" ΛCDM models using the separate universe (SU) ansatz whence the curvature of structure formation is equivalent to that of long-wavelength density fluctuation. We find that the emulators, those built for flat cosmologies such as EuclidEmulator, can predict the non-flat P(k) with least degradation. (Excerpt)

In physics and mathematics, an ansatz is an educated guess or an additional assumption made to help solve a problem, and which may later be verified to be part of the solution by its results.

Trivedi, Oem and Maxim Khlopov. On rips and cosmological singularities in a universe merging with baby universes. arXiv:2401.13251. We record this entry by Ahmedabad University, India and Southern Federal University, Russia astroscientists as Earthuman abilities have now become able to achieve mathematical conceptions of entire, unitary cosmoses. In consideration, they seem to be engaged in interactions with other multiversal entities as each spatially and temporally bubble in and out of existence. I recall seeing Andrei Linde in 1983 at Harvard present this very scenario which he saw as taking on a fractal scale. Some four decades later, our global theoretic and instrumental collaborations can verify these far flung vistas. See also The long freeze: an asymptotically static universe from holographic dark energy by Oem Trivedi and Robert J. Scherrer at arXiv:2409.11420.

Understanding the late-time acceleration of the universe and its subtleties is one of the biggest mysteries in cosmology. Recently an interesting approach to explaining the late time acceleration has been put forward, where the expansion of the universe is driven by mergers with other "baby" universes by way of new observational data. In this work we examine various rip scenarios and other future cosmological singularities in such a "multiversal" scenario.

Trivedi, Oem and Robert Scherrer. The long freeze: an asymptotically static universe from holographic dark energy.. arXiv:2409.11420. Ahmedabad University, India and Vanderbilt University, USA astroscientists conceive another instance whereby our collective human intellect is presently able to explore, quantify and imagine an entire multiversal scenario. Yet again though an ecosmo sapiens identity is ap, we peoples are not factored in as a phenomenal, cocreative, pivotal phase.

We show that some holographic dark energy models can lead to a future evolution of the universe in which the scale factor is asymptotically constant and the corresponding energy and pressure densities vanish. We provide examples of such models and general conditions that can lead to an asymptotically static universe, which we have called the “long freeze." (Abstract)

Wainwright, Carroll, et al. Simulating the Universe(s): From Cosmic Bubble Collisions to Cosmological Observables with Numerical Relativity. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics. 03/030, 2014. As the title extols, physicists from UC, Santa Cruz, Perimeter Institute, University College London, and Long Island University, including Hiranya Peiris and Anthony Aguirre, contribute to our collective transformation of cosmos into consciousness. Might we all ask at some point what is the human phenomenon, why can thought span and learn such vistas, what great discovery does the universe want us to make?

The theory of eternal inflation in an inflation potential with multiple vacua predicts that our universe is one of many bubble universes nucleating and growing inside an ever-expanding false vacuum. The collision of our bubble with another could provide an important observational signature to test this scenario. We develop and implement an algorithm for accurately computing the cosmological observables arising from bubble collisions directly from the Lagrangian of a single scalar field. We first simulate the collision spacetime by solving Einstein's equations, starting from nucleation and ending at reheating. We then calculate the comoving curvature perturbation in an open Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universe, which is used to determine the temperature anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background radiation. We characterize observational predictions by computing the probability distributions over four phenomenological parameters which capture these intrinsic and model uncertainties. This represents the first fully-relativistic set of predictions from an ensemble of scalar field models giving rise to eternal inflation, yielding significant differences from previous non-relativistic approximations. (Abstract excerpts)

Wilczek, Frank. Multiversality. Classical and Quantum Gravity. 30/193001, 2013. Also posted at arXiv:1307.7376. The MIT physicist and 2004 Nobel laureate offers a succinct overview of an evident, mathematically legible, realm of myriad variable cosmoses. The main theoretical exercise involves an Inflationary Axion Cosmology, not easily defined, which Wilczek and colleagues such as Max Tegmark have conjured for some years. See their arXiv:0807.1726 for a review. His latest book, A Beautiful Question: Finding Nature’s Deep Design (2015), imagines how such an intrinsic presence across this raiment might be fruitfully discerned.

Valid ideas that physical reality is vastly larger than human perception of it, and that the perceived part may not be representative of the whole, exist on many levels and have a long history. After a brief general inventory of those ideas and their implications, I consider the cosmological "multiverse" much discussed in recent scientific literature. I review its theoretical and (broadly) empirical motivations, and its disruptive implications for the traditional program of fundamental physics. I discuss the inflationary axion cosmology, which provides an example where firmly rooted, plausible ideas from microphysics lead to a well-characterized "mini-multiverse" scenario, with testable phenomenological consequences. (Abstract)

Wood, Charlie. Pondering the Bits that Build Space-Time and Brains. Quanta. April 20, 2022. The entry is at once a lifetime profile of the University of Pennsylvania polyphysicst VijaY Balasubramanain, and a wide survey of theoretical frontier imaginations. In addition, he directs a second research group at Penn that studies how the world’s physical features may have sculpted the brain via information and computation as a natural language. For examples of his current, collegial work see Entanglement between Two Gravitating Universes at arXiv:2104.13383 and See Spin Structures and Baby Universes at 2007.04333. Into the 2020s, it seems to be newly accessible to consider, quantify and play with whole cosmoses.

In 1989, the renowned physicist John Wheeler proposed a radical new way to think about the universe. Quantum particles may shape-shift and disappear, but we can always count on information. Wheeler speculated that bits of information could be the fundamental ingredient of reality. Every physical quantity, every it, derives an ultimate significance from bits, binary yes-or-no indications, he wrote in an essay envisioning an “it from bit” cosmos. (quote)

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