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Laura Mersini-Houghton is part of the WikiProject Albania, an attempt to co-ordinate articles relating to Albania on Misplaced Pages. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion. If you are new to editing Misplaced Pages visit the welcome page so as to become familiar with the guidelines. If you would like to participate, please join the project and help with our open tasks.AlbaniaWikipedia:WikiProject AlbaniaTemplate:WikiProject AlbaniaAlbania Start This article has been rated as Start-class on Misplaced Pages's content assessment scale. Low This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

The following Misplaced Pages contributor may be personally or professionally connected to the subject of this article. Relevant policies and guidelines may include conflict of interest, autobiography, and neutral point of view. Jeff Houghton (talk · contribs) / Mersini-Houghton, Laura This user has contributed to the article.

Proud to be...

...the first person to post an entry on Ms. Mersini-Houghton's talk page, sort of like being the first to post on Albert Einstein's talk page before he was Albert Einstein. What I wanted to say was that the lede should have more data about her important contributions, imnho. Will do some of that a little later if a more knowledgable science geek doesn't come around and do so. Aleister Wilson 12:43 April 17, 2012 (UTC)

foot note 4

I can't see where the said predictions are made in the referenced paper. Please could we get a more detailed reference or corrected reference? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 149.241.51.77 (talk) 20:37, 13 October 2012 (UTC)

Mersini's alleged predictions

I've copied the following from the Multiverse article's Talk page, as it seeems relevant here too:

Can anybody check whether she even claimed in 2007 to have predicted the CMB Cold spot in 2006, let alone whether the 2006 paper contains such a prediction? I can't access the 2007 reference at all, and can only access the summary of the referenced 2006 paper which does indeed predicted possible voids, but it's unclear how well the detailed predictions match what was detected. In any case, due to my limited knowledge of Physics, I probably wouldn't be sure what detailed predictions had been made, even if I could access the full paper. But at least one anonymous contributor to the Mersini Talk page claims he sees no clear predictions in 'the referenced paper', though I don't even know if it's the same paper as the one currently referenced. There's also the problem that I seem to recall a 'great void' having being discovered long before 2006, admittedly by direct observation rather than via CMB data, but it would suggest that a vague prediction of possible voids might not be particularly impressive. This is similar to the problem with 'predictions' about Dark Flow, where a flow towards the so-called Great Attractor had been known about since the 1970s, as pointed out in the Dark Flow article. And I'm unable to even find where to link her third alleged prediction, nor to find any discussion of its significance. But I remember looking at the WMAP article yesterday, and if I understand right, the Mersini article has her 'predicting' in 2006 a fluctuation value below 1, when it was already 0.9 +/- 0.1 before 2006 on the WMAP data. I think it's important (due WP:NPOV) to balance claims that Multiverse theories are untestable, and so on. But I am a bit worried that I may be unwittingly spreading some questionable fantasies of some Mersini fan club (one of whom already implies on her Talk page that she's the next Einstein).Tlhslobus (talk) 14:45, 8 February 2013 (UTC)

I have now had another look at the WMAP article. The fluctuation (sigma_8) picture seems just as unsatisfactory:

The Laura Mersini article says:
In the same year (2006) WMAP reached agreement with SDSS experiment, that the overall amplitude of fluctuation is less than 1. If these observational findings, predicted in the 2006 papers by Mersini-Houghton et al. are confirmed over the next few years, then they may offer the first evidence of a universe beyond our own.

The summary of her referenced December 2006 paper says:
We show that the effect of the string corrections is to suppress $\sigma_8$ and the CMB $TT$ spectrum at large angles, thereby bringing WMAP and SDSS data for $\sigma_8$ into agreement.

But the WMAP article gives the following sigma_8 data:

1year data (released Feb 2003) Fluctuation amplitude at 8h−1 Mpc (sigma_8) WMAP data only 0.9±0.1 — data from all sources 0.84±0.04

3 year data (released Mar 2006) Fluctuation amplitude at 8h−1 Mpc (sigma_8) WMAP data only 0.761+0.049 −0.048 — data from all sources not given

5 year data (released Feb 2008) Fluctuation amplitude at 8h−1 Mpc (sigma_8) WMAP data only 0.796±0.036 — data from all sources 0.812±0.026

7 year data (released Feb 2010) Fluctuation amplitude at 8h−1 Mpc (sigma_8) WMAP data only 0.801±0.030 — data from all sources 0.809±0.024

9 year data (released Dec 2012) Density fluctuations at 8h−1 Mpc (sigma_8) WMAP data only 0.821±0.023 — data from all sources 0.820+0.013 −0.014

Far from the Mersini article's assertion that WMAP reached agreement with SDSS in 2006 that fluctuation was less than 1, the fluctuation was seemingly always less than 1 (or just possibly equal to 1 at the upper end of the 2003 range of possible WMAP-data-only values), so this was hardly something 'predicted' by Mersini et al.in 2006 as claimed in the article. But the WMAP value dropped dramatically in March 2006, suggesting that WMAP and SDSS no longer agreed (though this is not actually stated), and that in December 2006 Mersini et al are offering an explanation for why they are different and how they can be brought back into agreement. But any such disagreement doesn't persist, as the 2008 to 2012 data shows. So quite likely the data shows that Mersini et al are wrong. Quite likely this means that their theory was a testable and falsifiable theory which has been tested and falsified - which, if correct, would actually be a rather important answer to the criticism that Multiverse theories are unscientific because they make no falsifiable predictions. And a similar conclusion may also be available from some of her other predictions. But I don't know enough to say whether any such conclusion is actually warranted. Does anybody else know enough to say so? Tlhslobus (talk) 16:39, 8 February 2013 (UTC)

Structural POV error

Section Research, paragraph two claims:

Soon after the discovery of the landscape,

sounds like some natural phenomenon was discovered. Instead, what was discovered was that one in string theory can find 10 levels of false vacua. From my sceptical POV, this means that what was discovered, was that the string theory lost one other prediction value, rather than that it described a multitude of universes. The multiverse hypothesis used to detect the existence of foreign universes? Even though the article actually describes testable theories that have some prediction values, a reader may get the impression that the text provides some kind of circular reasoning covered up behind some reification fallacy. Rursus dixit. (bork!) 12:48, 12 September 2013 (UTC)

This article needs serious work

It seems to me that the tone of the article is problematic. The description of her areas of interest also seems poorly organised.

Also, why is her education written in bullet form when most other wikipedia articles do it in standard prose? (unsigned by User:24.44.0.54.

COI, sources

Agree with sentiment of last few comments here - this article needs a WP:NPOV / WP:OR / WP:SYN / WP:V check, and rebasing on secondary sources. I tagged as such. Widefox; talk 09:24, 13 June 2014 (UTC)

Move for article deletion

This article is irrelevant. Not every educator can get their article on Misplaced Pages, see Misplaced Pages:Notability (academics). This individual doesn't meet the notability criteria (associate professor instead of distinguished/full professor; no noted awards and so on). The contents such as claims of prediction lack any credibility. Also, appearance in an episode of some leisure popular sci TV series is not notable regardless if the episode was nominated for an award. Besides, the article has been suffering from numerous problems for too long to be ignored any further; the tags make it look like a Christmas tree. The bragging is prevalent, namely the way "achievements" are blown out of proportion w/o reliable references to support the claimed "prediction genius" of this individual, and so on. Their main contribution seems to be co-authorship in developing of a sci theory, which is not notable either. It all points to turbo POV, bordering on delusional even. So I move for deletion. You can discuss here. Holybeef (talk) 03:44, 4 July 2014 (UTC)

Quotes within the citations

These are to make it easy for others to check the sources; if the article is kept, I will trim these quotes substantially as per rules to safeguard copyrights.--Tomwsulcer (talk) 00:27, 6 July 2014 (UTC)

Material from previous incarnation of article

Here is material from a previous version of the article, kept here in case sources can be found, and also to help future contributors to this article, since it is probably correct even though it is written at a level probably too academic for Misplaced Pages ...--Tomwsulcer (talk) 11:51, 6 July 2014 (UTC)

Soon after the discovery of the landscape, Mersini-Houghton proposed a theory in 2004–2005 for the birth of the universe from the landscape multiverse. The main idea is based on placing the wavefunction of the universe on the landscape in order to calculate the most probable wavefunction of the universe. This theory takes into account the out of equilibrium dynamics in the initial states and it includes decoherence among the various wavefunctions. The derived probability distribution results in states of high energy inflation being the most probable initial condition to start a universe. The selection mechanism arises from the out of equilibrium evolution of gravitational versus matter degrees of freedom, as follows: gravity is a "negative heat capacity system" (vacuum energy tends to equilibrium by expanding the initial space to infinity), while matter degrees of freedom are in the class of "positive heat capacity" systems (that tend to equilibrium by collapsing the system to a point). Any realistic cosmology contains both contributions massive fluctuations, and, vacuum energy. Therefore, the evolution of the opposing tendencies of the degrees of freedom in the initial states drives the state out of equilibrium and selects only high energy initial states as "survivor" universes from the back reaction of massive fluctuations since only high energy states can grow. Initial states that contain large vacuum energies give rise to expanding physical universes. Low energy initial states cannot survive the back reaction of massive fluctuations, cannot grow and thus result in "terminal" universes.

In 2006 in two papers named Cosmological Avatars of the Landscape, and, Mersini-Houghton predicted that the CMB cold spot, which was later observed by WMAP and Planck, was "the unmistakable imprint of another universe beyond the edge of our own",. Planck data has confirmed that the Cold Spot is an underdense region in the southern hemisphere, of about 200 Mpc and z~1, in perfect agreement with what she and her collaborators had predicted in their 'Cosmological Avatars of the Landscape' papers 'I: Bracketing the SUSY Breaking Scale', and 'II: CMB and LSS Signatures' published in 2006.

In November 2008, a NASA team led by Alexander Kashlinsky observed the dark flow of galaxy clusters in the universe at exactly the velocity and alignment predicted by her earlier in the 'Cosmological Avatars of the Landscape I, II' papers in 2006.

In the same year (2006) WMAP reached agreement with SDSS experiment, that the overall amplitude of fluctuation is less than 1. If these observational findings, predicted in the 2006 papers by Mersini-Houghton et al. are confirmed over the next few years, then they may offer the first evidence of a universe beyond our own. Such confirmation would tie the standard model of cosmology into a more coherent picture where our universe is not at the center of the world, but part of it.. These predictions were just confirmed by Planck data released in March 2013.

After the observational confirmation of the five predictions (CMB cold spot, power suppression at low l's, alignment of quadrupole with octupole, dark flow, and Sigma8~0.8) her work continues to attract international media attention, GCHEP/UNC, in the New Scientist, Bild der Wissenschaft, Scientific American, and Discover magazine.

A team of astrophysicists reported between November 2008 and February 2009 that they had found evidence of the northern hemisphere CMB cold spot in analysis of WMAP data. However, apart from the southern CMB cold spot, the varied statistical methods in general fail to confirm each other regarding a northern CMB cold spot. Since Mersini's Theory on the Origins of the Universe from the Landscape Multiverse, several other possible causes have been suggested for the CMB cold spot. The main issue with the alternative explanations offered since Mersini's theory is that they can not produce an explanation for all observed anomalies having the same origin. Precision measurements in cosmology therefore highly constrain these phenomenological models.

Dark flow remains controversial. Its existence and velocity are "likely to stay unsettled until" the new accurate cosmic microwave background radiation data by the European Space Agency's Planck satellite are available in 2013.

The Planck results for anomalies observed in the CMB were published in March 2013 The anomalies discovered and confirmed by Planck in the CMB are: 1. Power suppression at large distances (low I's); 2. Cold Spot; 3. Alignment of Quadrupole and Octupole in the CMB leading to a Preferred Direction; and, 4. The Overall Amplitude of Sigma_8. All of these anomalies were derived in the 2006 paper: "Why the Universe Started from a Low Entropy State", well before (and independent of) any experimental detections.

Before her work on the Theory of the Origins of the Universe from the Landscape Multiverse, she investigating the problem of dark energy and developed a program with her collaborator M.Bastero-Gil, where dark energy is produced by short distance (transplanckian) modes. With other collaborators she analyzed wMAP data for the equation of state of dark energy and showed that it can be of a phantom form.

I indented your discussion under the deletion nomination section; please don't try to obfuscate the nomination by creating seemingly divorced sections after the deletion nomination section. In the same sense, I reversed your attempt to revamp the article per edit comments, main objections: academic notability is not established by proposing a theory; there are tens of thousands of theories but not each proponent of a theory gets own Misplaced Pages article. For example, the refs you offer to substantiate your daring claim that she's a "chief proponent" do not say this; instead, one ref does say that she is "one proponent". And so on. Please either discuss this seriously or don't discuss at all. Holybeef (talk) 12:51, 6 July 2014 (UTC)

1. ^ arxiv:hep-th/0611223
2. ^ arxiv:hep-th/0612142
3. Marcus Chown, The void: Imprint of another universe?, New Scientist, 2007-11-24
4. A. Kashlinsky, F. Atrio-Barandela, D. Kocevski, and H. Ebeling, A measurement of large-scale peculiar velocities of clusters of galaxies: results and cosmological implications, ApJ 686 L49, doi:10.1086/592947, arXiv:0809.3734,(same paper at nasa.gov)
5. arXiv:0810.5388
6. Cosmological Avatars of the Landscape I, II; Phys. Rev. D, 77, doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.77.063510, doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.77.063511; arxiv:hep-th/0611223, arxiv:hep-th/0612142
7. ^
8. GCHEP
9. arXiv:0811.2732v3/astro-ph
10. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 000, 1{13 (2009) Printed 20 May 2009 Non-Gaussian Signatures in the five-year WMAP data as identified with isotropic scaling indices G. Rossmanith1?, C. Rath1, A. J. Banday2;3 and G. Morfill1
11. Mann, Adam (2011-12-16). "Supernova research challenges cosmic "dark flow" mystery". Arstechnica.com. Retrieved 2012-11-11.

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