Our Universe May Have Emerged from a Black Hole in a Higher Dimensional Universe

Our Universe May Have Emerged from a Black Hole in a Higher Dimensional Universe

The event horizon of a black hole — the point of no return for anything that falls in — is a spherical surface. In a higher-dimensional universe, a black hole could have a three-dimensional event horizon, which could spawn a whole new universe as it forms. Credit: Artist’s impression by Victor De Schwanberg/Science Photo Library

New research from theoretical physicists at the Perimeter Institute proposes that our universe may have emerged from a black hole in a higher-dimensional universe.

The Big Bang poses a big question: if it was indeed the cataclysm that blasted our universe into existence 13.7 billion years ago, what sparked it?

Three Perimeter Institute researchers have a new idea about what might have come before the Big Bang. It’s a bit perplexing, but it is grounded in sound mathematics, testable, and enticing enough to earn the cover story in Scientific American, called “The Black Hole at the Beginning of Time.”

What we perceive as the big bang, they argue, could be the three-dimensional “mirage” of a collapsing star in a universe profoundly different than our own.

“Cosmology’s greatest challenge is understanding the Big Bang itself,” writes Perimeter Institute Associate Faculty member Niayesh Afshordi, Affiliate Faculty member and University of Waterloo professor Robert Mann, and PhD student Razieh Pourhasan.

Conventional understanding holds that the Big Bang began with a singularity – an unfathomably hot and dense phenomenon of spacetime where the standard laws of physics break down. Singularities are bizarre, and our understanding of them is limited.

“For all physicists know, dragons could have come flying out of the singularity,” Afshordi says in an interview with Nature.

The problem, as the authors see it, is that the Big Bang hypothesis has our relatively comprehensible, uniform, and predictable universe arising from the physics-destroying insanity of a singularity. It seems unlikely.

So perhaps something else happened. Perhaps our universe was never singular in the first place.

Their suggestion: our known universe could be the three-dimensional “wrapping” around a four-dimensional black hole’s event horizon. In this scenario, our universe burst into being when a star in a four-dimensional universe collapsed into a black hole.

In our three-dimensional universe, black holes have two-dimensional event horizons – that is, they are surrounded by a two-dimensional boundary that marks the “point of no return.” In the case of a four-dimensional universe, a black hole would have a three-dimensional event horizon.

In their proposed scenario, our universe was never inside the singularity; rather, it came into being outside an event horizon, protected from the singularity. It originated as – and remains – just one feature in the imploded wreck of a four-dimensional star.

The researchers emphasize that this idea, though it may sound “absurd,” is grounded firmly in the best modern mathematics describing space and time. Specifically, they’ve used the tools of holography to “turn the Big Bang into a cosmic mirage.” Along the way, their model appears to address long-standing cosmological puzzles and – crucially – produce testable predictions.

Of course, our intuition tends to recoil at the idea that everything and everyone we know emerged from the event horizon of a single four-dimensional black hole. We have no concept of what a four-dimensional universe might look like. We don’t know how a four-dimensional “parent” universe itself came to be.

But our fallible human intuitions, the researchers argue, evolved in a three-dimensional world that may only reveal shadows of reality.

They draw a parallel to Plato’s allegory of the cave, in which prisoners spend their lives seeing only the flickering shadows cast by a fire on a cavern wall.

“Their shackles have prevented them from perceiving the true world, a realm with one additional dimension,” they write. “Plato’s prisoners didn’t understand the powers behind the sun, just as we don’t understand the four-dimensional bulk universe. But at least they knew where to look for answers.”

Reference: “Out of the White Hole: A Holographic Origin for the Big Bang” by Razieh Pourhasan, Niayesh Afshordi and Robert B. Mann, 2 April 2014, Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics.
DOI: 10.1088/1475-7516/2014/04/005
arXiv: 1309.1487

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53 Comments on "Our Universe May Have Emerged from a Black Hole in a Higher Dimensional Universe"

  1. These type of hypothesis are noteworthy, The big bang theory with all of its certainties may one day be compared to our rudimentary ideas that the sun revolved around the earth.

    • She’s making this response because a black hole is a plasma vortex, transforming, transumting, particle accelerator. The high speed jets are 90 degrees of the magnetic field, producing Neutrons, Tritium (H3) and Ozone (O3), for which all of the molecules of the universe can form.

    • If nobody was in the Universe to oberve it, would the Universe still exist? Is the Universe only a product of our observations and ability to understand its principles?

  2. This is actually a neat theory when read through.

  3. Makes sense to me, I have a difficult time with the singularity idea, it’s simply not possible

  4. very interesting article. In the humble opinion of this writer the four dimensional universe is present alongside the three dimensional universe, and not beyond its borders. big bang singularity contained water and everything physical had hence sprung forth from it. beyond the physical realm of this universe are other universes or multiverses but without any physical objects, hence the point of having physical laws is a moot in those realms of existence.

    • PAUL A NICHOLLS | January 31, 2021 at 6:13 pm | Reply

      Without any knowledge of the mathematics required, I have posited this theory for as long as I can recall. It’s interesting that it now has robust and credible support. It feels much like the onion is being peeled apart. Will we receive confirmation that we are not alone, in my lifetime? Oh, I hope so.

  5. At last a possibility that seems plausible. The “Big Bang” has always left me with the question of WHAT BANGED? A burp from a black hole on either side makes far more sense.

  6. Please excuse my ignorance but could anyone tell me what the fourth dimension referred to in this article may be.

    • The fourth dimension is the time.

    • Time,a dimensional plain shift.Is it paper thin,so to speak,or is it that we are conditioned from birth to see the universe as we do?
      I write fiction and love where this is going,right or wrong,I’m in for the ride.

    • It is the dimension we would refer to as “the afterlife.” But with an important correction to the article: Actually time (change) is the fourth dimension, and we are here in a four dimensional Universe, and so I believe the higher dimension this article refers to would be a five dimensional Universe.

      The Fifth Dimension is somewhat of a “sideways” spreading out of potentials, a multitude of possible timelines, a sort of “overview” of all possible outcomes at every significant juncture in the progression of events that we perceive as reality… This probably isn’t making much sense.

      Steve, if you really want to know first hand about the existence of dimensions outside of space and time as we here know it, try smoking Salvia Divinorum. I mean if it is legal to do so where you live. Make sure to research it first, and make sure you have a competent “sitter” with you, a person who is completely sober and whose job is to protect your physical body from hurting itself while the pilot is not present in the cockpit. (That would be you, while you are away visiting another dimension.) Don’t smoke anything more powerful than 10x extract your first few times. Trust me on this.

      I have visited the “afterlife” via Salvia Divinorum and it is actually more like the “before-during-after-ever-always-life” if I understood correctly where I was… It is quite different from this dimension.

      The wheel of Reincarnation always keeps rolling… rolling… rolling… This wheel is a literal reality there in the Fifth dimension.

      Please note, the Fifth dimension is not “above” this one. It’s more like it’s “Inside and behind” this one. If you ever visit there, that may make a lot more sense to you.

      OK, now that I have convinced you of my sheer, utter madness, I bid you good day sir.

      • This is the difference between science and religion. Science is proven, and religion is a drug-induced sense of understanding.

        I’m not against religion, don’t get me wrong, but when comparing whatever… this was… to anything else, it seemed the most appropriate comparison.

      • This post is old but i felt the exact same thing about salvia and the other dimensions “just over the horizon” “behind the screen” or even more, a construct or projection of our mind so we can put order to things. D.All of the above.

      • Salvia definitely seems to suggest a “continuing wheel of always has, always will be” and a very primordial/ancient essence about it. Keep in mind its a entheogen, its essentially alive’& the perception is in the little literature there is about it’is that you’re experiencing true reality/space/universe/essence or “being” through the plants eyes (hence the nickname *eyes of the shepherdess *) Interesting stuff indeed xD

    • It’s not time, but duration. Duration is the measurement of time, and can be measured. When people talk about measuring time, they’re talking about measuring duration. Measuring time doesn’t make sense.

  7. And how did the four dimensional universe come into existence?

  8. Interesting, but like String/M-Theory additional dimensions are VERY difficult to prove. I heard this theory, without the black-hole for a while now so excuse me if I’m skeptical.

    Frankly, with all the thousands of theoretical physicists out there – I don’t see much progress with theoretical physicists since Einstein (and the big boys of Quantum mechanics) passed on. We’re still stuck on the standard model and even the incomprehensible observer model of classic quantum physics seems to have the best answers (but hasn’t really been extended). And someone tell me they’ve made some progress on gravity!

    It seems like a concentrated to focus on things that are outside our universe and, thus, extraordinarily difficult to prove. Like the prior poster said – what is their “fourth” dimension (obviously they aren’t considering time as a dimension).

    All that being said – at least they say its testable, so once they get their disappointing results they can move on.

  9. Poolroomaddict | August 9, 2014 at 10:57 am | Reply

    The first, and obvious, question that comes to mind is does this imply there could be infinitely many universes of infinitely many dimensions…and we just happen to exist on the event horizon of fourth in the series?

  10. When Alice entered Wonderland, our universe came into being.

  11. Madanagopal.V.C. | August 9, 2014 at 12:29 pm | Reply

    Lorentz transformation equations in relativity suggests that when any matter flies at the velocity of light which is maximum, three things occur. 1) The mass becomes infinite- called increase in mass.2)Length contracts infinitesimally small as we approach the velocity ‘c’.It is called contraction in length. Effectively this can be taken in three dimensional cases as reduction in volume. That is the matter becomes a point mass with all its original energy ,fantastic, without getting reduced since mass-energy is conserved and indestructible. And finally 3)there is dilatation of time, which means that time slows down to zero finally. Applying the theory of relativity, Big Bang happened at time t-zero with all its original mass and energy reduced to a point of Big Bang, which when exploded gave rise to this Universe with all the light matter of galaxies and stars and light besides all the Dark Matter and Dark Energy which constitutes maximum 96%.Now you start from time zero and come to the present 13.6 billion years. Once all the stars crumble to a black hole, the future would be another very tiny black hole of point mass, which will explode into another second universe. This theory gives oscillating universe theory as against multiverse theory. In both the cases the origin of such huge energy which transformed into matter is puzzling. Who created it, since in Physics ENERGY CAN NEITHER BE CREATED NOR DESTROYED ?The puzzle goes on for the future scientists to take it further, because laws of physics will remain the same through all ages and any magical creation theory will put the science into metaphysics. Thank YOu.

    • ive been working on a theory similar to this but not exactly like it but im not sure if it has been proposed yet or if what you are stating here is part of the same theory. ive already published it online and im hoping no one has beat me to the punch.s. essentially my theory states that black holes are big bangs. ive separated gravity from the main forces, weak, strong, and electro-magnetic, giving gravity its own classification. i do this by awarding gravity a characteristic that exceeds the limitations of all the other forces. gravity has the ability to cause the acceleration of matter to the speed of light where the other forces can not. this is done when black holes are born. i propose that it is only possible when a star that reaches a minimum mass/volume ratio that ill call the joe shmo constant. once a star that has reached this joe shmo constant collapses it will create a black hole. this is done because we know as matter increases in speed it increases in mass. as mass increases gravity increases. as gravity increases space is stretched. as long as a star has reached this joe shmo constant space would stretch at the same rate of speed as the matters acceleration un til the speed of light is reached. therefore, space has been stretched to infinite and mass/energy is increased to infinite. these are the ingredients for a universe and none of this can be reversed. this would describe how a black hole is the birth of a universe and how our universe could have been created. if proven it would also show how the beginning of our universe would not necessarily be the beginning of existence.

  12. Still getting something from nothing.

    • Given that empty space isn’t empty, but instead a ‘soup’ of particles which are constantly coming into and going out of existence (this has been well demonstrated and confirmed to be the case), I don’t see why ‘something from nothing’ should be a problem.

  13. It seems plausible in kind of a common sense way, but how could there be such an expansion of this universe? If everything were stricktly based on a black hole wouldn’t there be evidence of 4D matter being sucked into it in this universe?

  14. Flatland, by Edwin Abbott, is an excellent introduction to the subject of higher dimensions.

  15. Could this mean that there are 2-dimensional universes existing in all of the black holes in our universe?

    • Im not a scientist but I feel the black hole is a 3D area in space sorounding a fallen in star. That,that fallen in star attracts anything to itself then crushes its matter into so hard until electrons and protons etc are squeezed out.They too cannot escape but torn up onto smaller particles and smaller till probably into syrands, whocj maybe arr those that are released as gamma rays and other rays we have not been able to detect like dark energy/ matter.Good theory but we are using things we created like time. I ask of the science community to break out of laws that bind us, that scientsts go past our five senses that it has to be seen tasted,heard,felt,smelt etc…maybe Im asking too much but im counting on you guys.

  16. The Splitting Dark Matter- Black Hole- Big Bang and the Cyclic Multiverse.
    http://vixra.org/abs/1306.0065

  17. Black SUN (yeah, call it hole)- A huge recycler of dark matter, output direction of such; unconfirmed.

  18. Charlie McNamee | January 15, 2015 at 9:12 am | Reply

    Can one measure time with a ruler? Can within be measured by a clock? Is it a scientific “sin” to be a believer? Could not this initial “point of no dimension” be within all, which all was once upon a time very, very, very small?
    Is it hubris to think that we can “know” it all, hoppled as we are by the anchors of sense knowledge? “Credo ut intelligam”. [Augustine]

  19. I’m kind of surprised by the gee-whiz tone of the article. The idea that universes are emergent from black holes has been around a long time, e.g. Hawking referred to black holes as ‘Baby Universes’ many years ago.

    The idea is obvious. However, if it is true then the underlying philosophical principle of modern Physics, i.e. Physicalism, is false, and with it out the window goes reductionism and the whole can of garbage which is the Scientism of Dawkins, Krauss, Tyson Degrasse, et al. If you don’t believe that, google ‘Physicalism’.

  20. The Big Bang inflation epoch starts if the decreasing (Casimir) vacuum pressure equals the increasing Higgs particle elasticity inside the Big Crunch black hole nucleus. The Inflation epoch without re-ionisation ends if all splintered black hole nuclei have made a fractal pattern ( Lyman Alpha) and have found a partner to form dual Galaxy Anchor Black Holes (HH objects) and start to produce plasma. see also:
    arxiv.org/abs/1003.3356: Black Holes Constitute All Dark Matter ( Paul Frampton)

  21. This goes on the lines of string theory , but it is pretty interesting trying to understand the cosmos , prehaps if we could mimic and or to
    control it like we try with nature on earth , we could test that hypothesis and if that is the case than all multiverses are just one acting in synchronisation movement in the space-time. Black holes are indeed very interesting , I pondered that if this true how many galaxies,solar systems(Atoms),planets there really are , the amount is astronomical , so if we prove this theory to be true than we test this one.

  22. raul izquierdo | October 1, 2015 at 5:26 pm | Reply

    Is it possible that the our universe came to be from an exploding massive black hole? and as they consume the universe they finally consume each other? resulting in a change in the dimension itself? clearly im no scientist just imagining is all.

  23. Huseyn Qurbanov | March 2, 2016 at 11:06 am | Reply

    Logically complete cosmological concept. /due to lack of knowledge of the English language was not able to correct the translation Implemented by Google/

    In order to present the unlimited space originally:
    1. homogeneous – enough to postulate the presence in it of two elements with Simple and Complex /closed systematically/
    2. heterogeneous – enough to postulate the presence in it of one more element – the Most High and Almighty God – with open systematically.
    It is easy to assume that even at the lowest possible deployment of the intangible component of the essence of God – the Spirit of God – for the level of the original downwardly directed the permanent deployment of the material component of the essence of God, there is a curtailment of Simple and Complex /i.e.. It is their decay due to blocking of origin upwardly directed constantly deploy intangible components of the entity / as much as possible heterogeneous to God’s essence minimum possible number of cell uniformity (1H), and God on the basis of the material components of the 1H deploys the minimum possible heterogeneous to its essence as possible numerically elemental homogeneity (2H). Coagulation process will begin in 2H known God start time since the completion of its deployment. curtailment of the Spirit of God to the level of initial deployment again unfolds 1H – God potential for transformation 1H into 2H and 1H into 2H limitless!

  24. Digital Media Agency | September 21, 2016 at 4:49 am | Reply

    Perhaps our universe emerged from a rapidly rotating black hole that became elongated and then went hollow in the process? Laniakea?

  25. Black holes are made from either matter OR antimatter stars. So this would indicate that the output universes would be predisposed to the ways “+” or “-” formations interact with each other complexing the functions/formations of the “atoms” of every universal “level” as they are infinetly produced. Originating from the tear of force, into existence by infinitely parallel functions. This force both pulled apart however unable to move is why it builds scale lyrics into a subordinate dimension

  26. Huseyn Qurbanov | November 26, 2016 at 6:00 am | Reply

    Cosmological concept which is complete from logical point of view

    Initial composition of boundless space from the point of view of element:

    1.It is suffucient to declare existence of two elements, SIMPLE and COMPLEX, possesing closed systemic appearance in order to imagine different (homogenous) and completed one.
    2.It is sufficient to declare existence of Lord and Almighty in other element, possesing non-closed systematic appearance in order to imagine it as different and incomplete as heterogenous (in other words: various type).

    It is not difficult to presume that simple and complex compression is happened in possible minimal widening from permanent widening level, first, inclination to descending, from material component of God from non-material component of Divine Spirit/separation happened as maximum possible diversity (1H) on essence of God on minimum possible numeric homogeneity regarding with blockage of start of non-material components, permanently widening, inclined to their increase of essence/God widens minimal possible homogeneity as maximum possible numeric diversity (2H) to His essence on the basis of 1H material components. Closing process starts only from time, known to God, starting from completion of 2 H opening process. Closing process reopens according to initial opening level of Divine Spirit 1H-1H process of God to 2H process and conversion possibilities of 2H process to 1 H process!

  27. Would that mean that black holes in a 3 dimensional universe creates 2 dimensional universes and so on?

  28. The question never really ends until all of life ends…

    All everyone does now is to postulate, theorize and imagine… but no one ever wants to postulate or theorize that a more superior, intelligent being is behind what we all see now…

    Given the very small capacity of the human brain to try to understand things that it could not simply explain or how the things in existence ever came to be will always and ever generate the endless questions: …. and so what gave rise to it? or … where does it end?

    You can say the big bang …and so what gave rise to it? Black hole …. and so where did it come from? The particles, molecules, soups, or the universe… where does it start? …where is the end? The dimensions, whether 4th or 5th or infinity, …how did it emerge, from what? and where does it end?

    To these questions there will be no answer until all life returns to where it comes from: God! We can search all the ends of the earth… the answer will be God! But that is too simple and too easy to accept… so man continues the never-ending search. How foolish man becomes when he fails to acknowledge the all sovereign God as the artist behind the scenes…

  29. does this mean there are 2D sentient beings in our Black holes.

  30. Exactly that black hole might me one big big big black from past universe and began dispersed seed ( elements)

  31. that makes no sense

  32. im a person not a robot | November 10, 2020 at 1:57 pm | Reply

    I wish any of it did make sense but black holes facts are mostly Theory becuse we have no way to test any thing on an actual black hole it is just a bunch of numbers and theories

  33. Amazing it’s very interesting https://universedecode.com

  34. Can a 2 dimensional universe emerge from a 3 dimensional black hole?

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