HOW REALITY AS WE KNOW IT MIGHT CEASE TO EXIST INSTANTANEOUSLY
One of the most well established and successful theories in all of Physics, with respect to its predictive power, is the Quantum Field Theory. It has led to many predictions which have enhanced our understanding of reality to much greater extent.
One of the fundamental predictions of this theory is the existence of Quantum Fields, in which one of the constitutive fields is the Higgs Field, which permeates through all of the Universe. The Higgs Field is responsible for inducing the property of mass in the matter which we observe in the Universe, the theory of which was proposed by Peter Higgs et al. in 1964.
On 4th July, 2012, the discovery of the Higgs Boson led to the validation of this theory, and yet again proved the validity of predictions of the Quantum Field Theory, but also opened a new realm of possibility for a terrifying future of the known Universe.
According to the Quantum Field Theory, vacuum is defined as space which has the least possibly energy. It is not the vacuum as we perceive in out day-to-day notion, rather it is a physical entity which makes up the fabric of reality, and consists of the Quantum Fields, such as the Higgs Field.
A fairly general concept in Physics, i.e., the concept of stability, can be extended to the domain of Quantum Field Theory. Fairly generic understanding of this concept yields the fact that a system can be in a “stable” state, which is basically the lowest possible energy state in the realm of all possible low energy states. Then there are “meta-stable” states, which are only locally stable, but constitute of relatively higher energy that the stable states.
One of the by-products of the Quantum Field Theory is that our Universe could be in a “metastable” vacuum state. This state is also termed as the hypothetical false vacuum state.
NOW COMES THE SCARY PART:
According to calculations for Higgs Boson and the Higgs Field carried out by the physicists, one of the conclusions drawn from the calculations is that out Universe might actually be in a false vacuum or meta-stable vacuum state. This thing with false vacuum state is that, it can change into true vacuum state, and such an event can be triggered by fairly random quantum mechanical event of quantum-mechanical tunneling.
In a 2005 paper published in Nature, as part of their investigation into global catastrophic risks, MIT physicist Max Tegmark and Oxford philosopher Nick Bostrom calculate the natural risks of the destruction of the Earth at less than 1 per gigayear from all events, including a transition to a lower vacuum state [2].
DIVING INTO THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE PHENOMENA:
As the phenomena is described in theoretical physics, the transition from a false vacuum state into a true vacuum state (a state of lower energy vacuum), is termed as Bubble Nucleation. The phenomena, which is closely connected with the similar phenomena of Nucleation and Growth (NG) in Materials Science, is more or less governed by the same principles.
During the Bubble Nucleation, the bubble appears, which has true vacuum inside (lower energy vacuum state), and a surface tension effect on its boundary. Due to this, energy is expended as the bubble rolls over the potential energy barrier to attain the lower energy state as that of the true vacuum.
The “critical-size” of the bubble is determined by the principle that the bubble has zero total change in energy, which is implied from the fact that the decrease in the energy by the formation of true vacuum is compensated by the increase in the surface area of the bubble.
Hence, if the bubble of the lower energy vacuum attains a particular critical size, it begins to grow outwards indefinitely attaining the speed of light (c).
CONSEQUENCES:
If the bubble of vacuum is created in some part of the observable universe, anything which the surface of such bubble of lower energy vacuum encounters, ceases to exist.
If this bubble were to reach our galaxy, as a matter of fact reach our Solar System, as soon as it came in contact with Earth, our planet would cease to exist instantaneously, without us having any prior knowledge of such a bubble approaching us, before the exact moment we come in contact with it.
The new universe which would be formed by the “true vacuum”, would have very different physical laws than that of ours, which means that not only life might be impossible in that universe, but the very different laws of Physics in that new Universe might deem the formation of matter impossible. The new Universe would be an empty void, constituting of empty ordinary space.
SOME GOOD NEWS:
Although, all these predictions might be accurate with our current understanding of the Universe, with all the present theories, the actual formation of such “true vacuum”, although theoretically possible, is realistically un-feasible (details of which have been excluded, as they are out of the scope of this article).
CONCLUSION:
Although Physics may lead Humans to some counter-intuitive, deep insight of physical reality, it may lead to predictions which might sometimes be terrifying to us tiny Humans (with respect to the Universe).
But new breakthroughs in Science occur almost every day! Who knows, some better theory might come into picture in the future, discarding the current ones completely or indicating that the current ones are only limited, and the Universe has to be understood on a grander scheme of possibilities!
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