According to Thrillest, “Researchers believe that they’ve found evidence of the potential for a parallel universe in high-energy particles found in Antarctica. The researchers were perplexed by a ‘fountain of high-energy particles erupting from the ice’ in Antarctica at NASA’s Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA).” However, Peter Gorham, the principal investigator of ANITA, says that the data has not proved the existence of a parallel universe.

To start off with some background, there are numerous different cosmic particles traveling through space, including the neutrino, a neutral subatomic particle. Many of the neutrinos that pass through us come from the Sun, stars, Big Bang, and other energetic astrophysical sources. Neutrinos come with a variety of different energies, with the most energetic ones being the rarest. Most of the high-energy neutrinos that we see are produced when cosmic particles of extremely high energies collide with the upper atmosphere. This produces cascades of particles that also result in neutrinos. Some of the resulting neutrinos will pass through the Earth almost completely, interacting with the final layers of Earth’s crust where they produce a signal that our detectors are sensitive to. 

The IceCube neutrino detector was largely funded by the National Science Foundation. CNN states that “workers drilled 86 holes in the ice, each 1.5 miles deep, and spread a network of 5,160 light sensors over a grid of 1 cubic kilometer.” ANITA then flies over the ice. Forbes stated that ANITA “detected radio waves of a particular set of energies and directions coming from beneath the Antarctic ice. The rare events that ANITA saw were consistent with a neutrino coming up through the Earth and producing radio waves, but at energies that should be so high that passing through the Earth uninhibited should not be possible.” ANITA saw three events like these. However, there is evidence that disfavors the neutrinos coming through Earth. The IceCube neutrino detector would have seen a signal if high-energy tau neutrinos were regularly passing through the Earth, but it did not.

In conclusion, ANITA saw radio signals that it could not explain. The leading hypothesis is that high-energy tau neutrinos are traveling upwards through the Earth, but it was refuted by the IceCube neutrino detector observations. This teaches us that there is no astrophysical point source out there that is creating the particles that ANITA is indirectly observing. 

So how do parallel universes play a role in the midst of all this information? There are currently only three explanations for what ANITA observed. First, there was an astrophysical source for these particles. Secondly, there may have been a flaw in the IceCube neutrino detector or the interpretation of the detector data was inaccurate. The third explanation is exotic and beyond the Standard Model (CPT violation); if the universe cannot violate CPT, then a parallel universe may come in place where CPT is reversed. There may be a parallel universe that we don’t know of, but we can only wait for what will come in the future.

Graphic courtesy of NEWSCIENCE.COM