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Multiple timelines is not a reality yet (as of 2016's science and technology), but exists only in Marvel/DC universe. It is something that is used to explain the paradox of time-travel. If you go back in time and kill yourself, the paradox is that you can't do that since you have just wiped off the physical existence of your future self by doing that.

So, multiple timeline theory explains that there will be two continuous parallel realities - one in which you will stay alive, and another in which you will be dead. Time, essentially splits/branches like a river from the point in time where such an event occurred (Watch X-Men - Back to the Future if you need to understand this in detail).

I want to know what is the physics scientist's opinion in this regard? I've heard somewhere (Stephen Hawkings perhaps) that there is some evidence of multiple parallel universes. Can this explain the multiple timeline theory?

Qmechanic
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Prahlad Yeri
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    @AccidentalFourierTransform Well, one century's magic is another century's science. The scientists of Copernicus' time were equally smug when he said that Sun is at the center of the universe! If today's scientists laugh at this question, its no different. – Prahlad Yeri Jan 02 '16 at 14:50
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    ...exists only in Marvel/DC universe er, not quite. There are plenty of books and movies involving multiverses, it is not exclusive to two comic book publishers. – Kyle Kanos Jan 02 '16 at 14:50
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    Also: this is basically the same question as this one which is closed as asking about opinions of some people and not physics. You might be interested in this question, among many other questions about multiverse. – Kyle Kanos Jan 02 '16 at 14:54
  • @KyleKanos As I said, the Copernicus of today will not try to close this, only the closed minded Scientists who are smug enough to even accept a theoretical possibility outside of their calculations. Imagine, a question like Can sun really be at center of our galaxy? being laughed at and ridiculed by contemporaries of Copernicus! – Prahlad Yeri Jan 02 '16 at 14:57
  • You are asking specifically for opinions of "some people" here, this is explicitly off-topic. You certainly can ask something about multiverses, though you should check through the list of previous question I gave in my 2nd comment to ensure that your question wasn't already asked. – Kyle Kanos Jan 02 '16 at 15:08
  • It might be out-of-topic I agree, but closing such questions is not in the interest of Physics. Just as closing a question like Can sun be the galaxy center? would not have been in the interest of Science in the 15th century and we would still be in the dark ages! – Prahlad Yeri Jan 02 '16 at 15:10
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    Closing questions that are explicitly off topic is in the interests of this site. Asking questions about multiverse theory can be in the interest of physics (the study) and this site, if it is constrained to being on-topic. – Kyle Kanos Jan 02 '16 at 15:14
  • [Historical note: Can sun really be at center of our galaxy? - 1) The Sun is not at the center of the galaxy, and the idea has never been seriously considered. 2) The idea of galaxies was not brought forth until the early 20th century; even then, the phrase "island universe" was used. The term "galaxy" has never been used to refer to the universe.] Anyway, this is clearly opinion-based. Different scientists think different things. – HDE 226868 Jan 02 '16 at 17:51
  • a rethoric option with back in time in the block universe : if you come back before your birth, you would not exist until the happy date. If you come after, you would be the one you were at this time with not a bit of memory of the loop. –  Jan 02 '16 at 18:39
  • did you considered local clocks in a genetic tree ? –  Jan 02 '16 at 19:15
  • Since you want my opinion... multiple timelines are bad literature. They show that an author is not even capable of constructing a single imaginary world without internal contradictions. Nature, by all means, doesn't seems to be a bad author. – CuriousOne Jan 02 '16 at 20:14
  • Memory and knowledge must be taken into account properly. E.g. T-Rex only existed when you first read about it. Before you knew about dinosaurs, you existed on all possible timelines that could give rise to you, which included timelines where dinosaurs didn't exist on Earth. When you didn't yet know about modern technology like cars, the set of all persons who you would turn into later, included people who ended up on prehistoric timelines. Only when you saw the first car did you end up in the modern technological era. – Count Iblis Jan 03 '16 at 01:19

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The book you need to read is Fabric of Reality by David Deutsche

He is probably the current best known proponent of the Many Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics. There, you have a potentially infinite number of "parallel time lines"

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    And an infinite number of Dirk Brueres tippy-tapping on their keyboards! – John Duffield Jan 02 '16 at 18:13
  • Yes - which is why I view the lottery as a transdimensional money transfer mechanism. While in this universe someone almost always wins who is not me, and therefore I transfer my money to them, in the wider scheme a version of me always wins elsewhere. –  Jan 02 '16 at 18:21
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    MWI is intellectual nonsense, it doesn't even qualify for science. Worse, still, it completely misses the measurement problem which it claims to solve. – CuriousOne Jan 02 '16 at 20:13
  • There are at least 5 other multiverse theories apart from that. –  Jan 02 '16 at 21:34
  • @Dirk Bruere : and they're all nonsense too! – John Duffield Jan 04 '16 at 13:40
  • It's all nonsense until it isn't. Are you one of the True Believers who think that a TOE will eventually reveal why this is the only possible universe with the only possible laws of physics and only possible constants? –  Jan 04 '16 at 15:55
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Can multiple timelines exist according to theoretical physics?

No. It's science fiction I'm afraid.

Multiple timelines is not a reality yet (as of 2016's science and technology), but exists only in Marvel/DC universe. It is something that is used to explain the paradox of time-travel. If you go back in time and kill yourself, the paradox is that you can't do that since you have just wiped off the physical existence of your future self by doing that.

And time travel is science fiction too. There is no way that you can move such that everything else not only moved back to where it was, but never moved at all. See this answer for more information.

So, multiple timeline theory explains that there will be two continuous parallel realities - one in which you will stay alive, and another in which you will be dead. Time, essentially splits/branches like a river from the point in time where such an event occurred (Watch X-Men - Back to the Future if you need to understand this in detail).

This sort of stuff makes for a nice movie. There's lots of really good movies that feature time travel. I mentioned some of them in this article. But they're just movies, not physics.

I want to know what is the physics scientist's opinion in this regard? I've heard somewhere (Stephen Hawkings perhaps) that there is some evidence of multiple parallel universes. Can this explain the multiple timeline theory?

There is no evidence of parallel universes, sorry. And no, it can't explain "multiple timeline theory".

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John Duffield
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