Is the LHC about to find a parallel universe? (Picture Reuters)

Parallel universes are a staple of science fiction – strange mirrors of our own reality, but where (for some reason) Hitler has usually won the war.

But the Large Hadron Collider could actually find one when it switches on at its highest-ever power setting on Wednesday.

It won’t, of course, be anything like the sci fi ones, and Hitler will not be involved.

To do so, it’ll need to find – or (gulp) create – mini-black holes, which will allow physicists to test some pretty crazy new theories about gravity.


One of the many mind-scrambling ideas on the table is that the Big Bang never happened, and the universe has always existed.



If the Collider detects these ‘mini black holes’, then our understanding of physics is about to take a very big jolt indeed.

‘We have calculated the energy at which we expect to detect these mini black holes in gravity’s rainbow. If we do detect mini black holes at this energy, then we will know that both gravity’s rainbow and extra dimensions are correct,’ said Dr Mir Faizal, speaking to Phys.org.

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‘We predict that gravity can leak into extra dimensions, and if it does, then miniature black holes can be produced at the LHC.

‘As gravity can flow out of our universe into the extra dimensions, such a model can be tested by the detection of mini black holes at the LHC.’