Meet the Higgs Bubble That Will Destroy the Universe. Maybe.

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Meet the Higgs Bubble That Will Destroy the Universe. Maybe.

By Erik Vance, Live Science Contributor | April 6, 2018 07:43am ET

                               
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An artist's conception of the Higgs boson.

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Scientists say they know how the universe will end. It won't be a cosmic collapse but rather a giant cosmic bubble that devours everything in its path.

According to a recent paper, published on March 12 in the journal Physical Review D, the final moment for the universe will be triggered by a bizarre consequence of subatomic  physics called an instanton. This instanton will create a tiny bubble that will expand at the speed of light, swallowing everything in its path. It's only a matter of time.

"At some point you will create one of these bubbles," study lead author Anders Andreassen, a physicist at Harvard University, told Live Science. "It will be very unpleasant."

By "unpleasant," he means the end to all life — and, indeed, chemistry — as we know it.

Very little is known about instantons, which are the solutions to equations governing the motion of tiny subatomic particles,but Andreassen loosely compared them to the phenomenon of quantum tunneling, whereby a particle seemingly defies physics to pass through an otherwise impenetrable barrier. But instead of crossing a barrier, the instanton forms a bubble within the Higgs field, the field that gives everything mass and gives rise to the Higgs boson.

Interestingly, this universe-ending bubble would never have been possible were it not for the particular mass of the Higgs boson in relation to another heavier particle, called a top quark, which comprises many atoms. If either the quark or the Higgs particle had been a little lighter, these universe-destroying bubbles couldnꞌt form.

Alas, that is not the case and so after some amount of time, a destructive bubble will form. The team calculated the shelf life of the universe as between 10 quinquadragintillion years (one with 139 zeros after it) and a mere 10 octodecillion years (one with 58 zeros after it).

"That is a very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very long time," Andreassen said. "Our sun will burn up and many things will happen in our solar system before this is very likely to happen."

Sell-by date of the universe

It's like the milk in your fridge. The sell-by date is the earliest conceivable deadline, but chances are you can drink it after that without a problem. Of course, there's always the outside chance that something went wrong at the bottling plant and it's sour the minute you buy it. Similarly, Andreassen said, it's possible that a bubble has already formed and is hurtling toward us at the speed of light right now.

There's comfort in knowing how everything ends, but Vincenzo Branchina, a physics professor and researcher at the University of Catania in Italy who was not involved in the study, said not to start crying over sour milk just yet.

"The claim that Anders Andreassen and company are making for this number has to be taken, as they say, with a grain of salt," Branchina said.

Branchina said the Harvard team only accounted for the standard model of physics and not all the new and confusing branches, like quantum gravity and dark matter, that are still completely mysterious. In order for the universe to be consumed in an expanding ball of chaos, dark matter, a mysterious form of matter that exerts a gravitational pull but emits no light, cannot interfere. Which is unlikely, since it might comprise 80 percent of our universe.

Similarly, Branchina has shown that quantum gravity ­— a bizarre part of physics that attempts to reconcile quantum mechanics and Einstein's theory of general relativity, that we have barely glimpsed —  could make the universe far more stable or unstable, depending on its rules. He said that since nobody understands this new physics, we cannot know anything about the universeꞌs ultimate end.

Andreassen agreed.

"I wouldnꞌt put my money on this being the end of the story. I would expect dark matter to come kick in and change the story," Andreassen said.

Originally published on Live Science.

相遇将破坏宇宙的希格斯泡沫，也许

作者Erik Vance，Live Science撰稿人|美国东部时间2018年4月6日07:43上午

                               
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一位艺术家对希格斯玻色子的概念。

信用：Shutterstock

科学家们说他们知道宇宙将如何结束。它不会是宇宙的崩溃，而是一个巨大的宇宙泡沫，它吞噬了一切。

根据最近发表在3月12日“物理评论D”杂志上的一篇论文，宇宙的最后时刻将由亚原子物理的一个奇特的后果触发，称为瞬间。这瞬间会产生一个微小的气泡，它将以光速扩展，吞噬它的一切。这只是时间问题。

研究的主要作者，哈佛大学物理学家Anders Andreassen告诉Live Science，“在某个时候你会创造这些气泡之一。” “这将是非常不愉快的。”

通过“不愉快的事情”，他意味着终结所有的生命 - 事实上，化学 - 就像我们所知道的那样。

关于瞬时子知道的知之甚少，它们是控制微小亚原子粒子运动的方程的解决方案，但Andreassen粗略地将它们与量子隧穿现象进行了比较，因此粒子似乎无视物理学通过其他难以逾越的障碍。但是，不是穿过障碍，而是在希格斯场内形成一个泡沫，这个场使所有物质均匀并产生希格斯玻色子。

有趣的是，这个宇宙结束的气泡如果不是希格斯玻色子的特定质量与另一个更重的粒子（称为包含许多原子的顶夸克）相关联，那么这个泡泡是不可能的。如果夸克或希格斯粒子稍微轻一点，这些破坏宇宙的气泡就不会形成。

唉，情况并非如此，经过一段时间之后，就会形成破坏性泡沫。该团队计算了宇宙的保质期为10年之后（其中139年后为零）和10年后10年（其中58年后为零）。

“这是一个非常，非常，非常非常非常非常非常非常非常长的时间，”Andreassen说。 “在太阳系很可能发生之前，我们的太阳会燃烧起来，太阳系中会发生很多事情。”

宇宙的销售日期
就像冰箱里的牛奶一样。销售日期是最早可以设想的最后期限，但有可能你可以在没有问题的情况下喝下去。当然，在装瓶车间出现问题的外部机会始终存在，并且在您购买它的那一刻就会变得很糟糕。同样，安德瑞森说，可能泡沫已经形成并且正在以现在的速度向我们飞速前进。

在知道一切如何结束的时候感到很舒服，但意大利卡塔尼亚大学的一位物理学教授兼研究员Vincenzo Branchina并未参与此项研究，他表示，不要开始对酸奶进行哭泣。

“Anders Andreassen和公司正在为这个数字做出的主张必须像他们所说的那样用一粒盐来做，”Branchina说。

科西纳表示，哈佛团队只是占据了物理学的标准模型，并不是所有新的和令人困惑的分支，如量子引力和暗物质，它们仍然是完全神秘的。为了让宇宙在混乱的球中消耗，暗物质是一种神秘的物质，它发挥着引力而不发光，不会干扰。这是不太可能的，因为它可能占我们宇宙的80％。

同样，科比已经表明，量子引力 - 一种试图调和量子力学和爱因斯坦的广义相对论的物理学奇怪的部分，我们几乎没有看到 - 可能会使宇宙远远更稳定或不稳定，这取决于它的规则。他说，由于没有人了解这个新物理学，我们无法知道宇宙的最终目的。

Andreassen同意。

“我不会把我的钱放在这个故事的最后，我希望暗物质能够开始并改变故事，”Andreassen说。


最初发表于Live Science