The Ripple-Replica Hypothesis: An Ordered Model of Distant Planetary System Copies

This paper sets out a speculative model for the distribution of planetary system copies in a universe large enough to contain them. Existing discussions, in particular the Level I multiverse described by Tegmark, treat identical and near identical configurations as a consequence of statistics: in infinite space, finite arrangements of matter repeat. Eternal inflation adds a production mechanism, in which pocket universes form successively and evolve independently.

The model proposed here concerns order rather than existence. It takes its image from wave propagation. A disturbance in a medium produces a train of waves, strongest near the source and progressively weaker with distance. Transferred to cosmology, the proposal is that copies of a planetary system, including Earth, would not be distributed without pattern. Copies close in generation to a given system would resemble it closely, in some cases to the point of identity. Resemblance would then decline with generational distance, until the later systems could no longer be recognised as copies of the first. The paper defines this decline, considers its relation to established work, and states the conditions under which the model could be developed into a testable form. It is presented as a hypothesis. No observational claim is made.