Is the Wheeler-DeWitt equation somehow related to the Multiverse?

[Suekdccia]

TL;DR Summary

Is Wheeler-DeWitt equation somehow related to any kind of Multiverse idea/model?

I've seen some articles that relate them (like this one: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1407.3118.pdf)

"In this paper we will analyze the third quantization of gravity in path integral formalism. We will use the time-dependent version of WheelerDeWitt equation to analyze the multiverse in this formalism."

I've also seen that this equation is very used in quantum cosmology, which involves sometime the consideration of multiple universes.
Also, Hartle-Hawking state is closely related to multiverse models, and this has been shown to satisfy, approximately, the Wheeler-DeWitt equation...

But, did John Wheeler or Bryce DeWitt relate this equation to some kind of multiverse model? Is this equation related to some kind of multiverse model?

 

[jedishrfu]

I suspect the connection is more tenuous in that Bryce Dewitt of Wheeler-Dewitt Equation fame, coined the term "Many Worlds" vs Everett's "Universal Wavefunction" term. Both physicists worked in this theoretical realm of GR and QM.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Many-worlds_interpretation
As an aside, here's a biography of Hugh Everett from Scientific American which gets into how he came to understand this notion of Many Worlds.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/hugh-everett-biography/

 

[Michael Price]

The Wheeler-Dewitt equation is just another equation, with no interpretational 'baggage'. You can subscribe to any interpretation of quantum mechanics, many worlds included, while using the W-D equation. Sometimes people claim that in quantum cosmology you are forced to adopt many worlds, because there is no external observer. But that is not really true - IMO.