RE: Higgs Boson particle, a.k.a. the "God particle," could end the universe

['Chris de Morsella' via Everything List]

 

 

From: everything-list@googlegroups.com 
[mailto:everything-list@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of LizR
Sent: Sunday, September 07, 2014 9:08 PM
To: everything-list@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: Higgs Boson particle, a.k.a. the "God particle," could end the 
universe

 

If I'm allowed to answer (not being a physicist) ...

 

I had the impression that this was already considered to be a possibility - 
that the current state of the universe might be a false vaccuum (or something 
like that) which could eventually drop into a lower energy state and destroy 
the current universe, a bit like dropping a chunk of ice-9 in the ocean.

 

Yes, perhaps the universe finds itself in a metastable valley… some local 
minima in which the laws (or perhaps the values of key constants) of the 
universe are amenable to life as we know it… and this is something that is 
discussed. I remember reading about an experiment where they were seeking to 
test some ancient uranium source from a mine in Africa that had (I forget the 
details exactly) but think that it had something to do with having been an 
ancient source that was concentrated enough for fission to have occurred and 
they very carefully measured the decay products and isotope remaining in the 
ore (our time) and by so doing were able to deduce that some key property 
(maybe it was the nuclear strong force) was exceedingly close to the current 
values for this force at a point in time billions of years ago. Proving that – 
even if we are in a valley of metastability that it has lasted a long time.

As Kim pointed out dark energy may eventually rip even the nucleus of atoms 
apart… as it overwhelms every other force in the universe.

 

It occurs to me that surely the amount of energy directed at a given region of 
space (which I assume contains lots of Higgs bosons, or at least the Higgs 
field) must exceed the specified limit inside things like supernovae and 
quasars, so presumably if this was likely it would have happened by now???

 

As Terren pointed out… perhaps it has happened in an uncountable number of 
other universes.

Personally I see no reason why anything should remain fixed and immutable, 
including the fundamental laws of the universe. I was more curious if this 
represented new findings on this interesting subject of the metastable nature 
of the very fabric of reality.

-Chris

 

 

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