Higgs boson find may spell doom for Universe

[Hum]

BOSTON ? A subatomic particle discovered last year that may be the long-sought Higgs boson might doom our universe to an unfortunate end, researchers say.

The mass of the particle, which was uncovered at the world's largest particle accelerator ? the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Geneva ? is a key ingredient in a calculation that portends the future of space and time.

"This calculation tells you that many tens of billions of years from now there'll be a catastrophe," Joseph Lykken, a theoretical physicist at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Ill., said Monday, Feb. 18, at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

"It may be the universe we live in is inherently unstable, and at some point billions of years from now it's all going to get wiped out," added Lykken, a collaborator on one of the LHC's experiments.

The Higgs boson particle is a manifestation of an energy field pervading the universe called the Higgs field, which is thought to explain why particles have mass. After searching for decades for proof that this field and particle existed, physicists at the LHC announced in July 2012 that they'd discovered a new particle whose properties strongly suggest it is the Higgs boson.

The mass of the new particle is about 126 billion electron volts, or about 126 times the mass of the proton. If that particle really is the Higgs, its mass turns out to be just about what's needed to make the universe fundamentally unstable, in a way that would cause it to end catastrophically in the far future.

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[Mr. Gibs]

"It may be the universe we live in is inherently unstable, and at some point billions of years from now it's all going to get wiped out," added Lykken, a collaborator on one of the LHC's experiments.

Another big bang.

[Growled Member]

"It may be the universe we live in is inherently unstable, and at some point billions of years from now it's all going to get wiped out," added Lykken, a collaborator on one of the LHC's experiments

I remember reading that several ancient cultures believed that the Universe has been wiped out several times before, and then recreated. I'm not sure how they would know that.

[Hum]

Finally -- I'll be alone. :p

[Growled Member]

You don't have to end the universe to do that......do you? :p

[DocM]

Another big bang.

Some are calling it the Big Slurp.

[seta-san]

here's how it's going to end

1 million years from now our galaxy is going to collide with Andromeda in what will be beautify but likely uneventful event as billions of stars simply pass by each other

some billions of years from now the interior of the earth will cool to such a point to no longer support the magnetic shield

life will end right then

after that the sun is going to balloon and encompass the earth.. sooner or later the sun will settle into a white dwarf stage where it will literally just simmer for billions of years..

but long before it cools all the way down the expansion of the universe will increase to such a speed as to literally break matter and everything ceases to exist

the end.

[javagreen]

Yeah. Like format + reinstall.

Yup.

[HawkMan]

here's how it's going to end

1 million years from now our galaxy is going to collide with Andromeda in what will be beautify but likely uneventful event as billions of stars simply pass by each other

some billions of years from now the interior of the earth will cool to such a point to no longer support the magnetic shield

life will end right then

after that the sun is going to balloon and encompass the earth.. sooner or later the sun will settle into a white dwarf stage where it will literally just simmer for billions of years..

but long before it cools all the way down the expansion of the universe will increase to such a speed as to literally break matter and everything ceases to exist

the end.

and long before the earth dies, mankind has spread across the universe on many new planets, making the death of Earth and Sol irrelevant. By the time our galaxy dies we will have move on to new galaxies, by the time the universe dies we will have ascended to energy beings or to another dimension or created some fancy shield bubble allowing us to survive and preserve part of the universe artificially.

after all the technology we will have in a mere 500 years from now would to us today appear as magic. provided we don't get wiped out by angry aliens first, I'd say mankind has an uncanny ability to persevere and survive most things. not that whatever we are when we do any of the things describe above will be called "human" anymore by our standard today.

[FloatingFatMan]

So, is this the part were we start running around, waving our arms in the air and crying "DOOOOOOM!" whilst also getting completely hammered and boinking the nearest willing pretty girl? :p

Coz like, I haven't been to a decent doom party since the end of the cold war! I miss those!

[Kane]

Sometimes to create, one must first destroy.

[Alwaysonacoffebreak]

Not this "We're doomed in a billion years" talk again. C'mon stop already, who here gives a flying **** what happens in a billion years? Not me, not my children nor my grand grand grandchildren.

[ngc891]

bring it on.

[Soldiers33]

many billions years from now? that is the nmost stupid thing ive heard of course it will end by then.

[trag3dy]

I'll worry about it when it happens.

[MikeChipshop Member]

Better start packing my over night back... oh wait? Billions of years you say...

[DocM]

Sometimes to create, one must first destroy.

Or, you can just REBOOT!!

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

The possibility that we are living in a false vacuum has never been a cheering one to contemplate. Vacuum decay is the ultimate ecological catastrophe; in the new vacuum there are new constants of nature; after vacuum decay, not only is life as we know it impossible, so is chemistry as we know it. However, one could always draw stoic comfort from the possibility that perhaps in the course of time the new vacuum would sustain, if not life as we know it, at least some structures capable of knowing joy. This possibility has now been eliminated.

I've always liked this quote.

[thommcg]

I remember reading that several ancient cultures believed that the Universe has been wiped out several times before, and then recreated. I'm not sure how they would know that.

Familiar...

The matrix is older than you know. I prefer counting from the emergence of one integral anomaly to the emergence of the next, in which case this is the sixth version.

[(Account no longer active)]

"This calculation tells you that many tens of billions of years from now there'll be a catastrophe."

I'm starting to panic already.

I think it will be more like a few hundred years with the way things are going.

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

"With the way things are going"? Do you think we're going to cause a vacuum metastability event or something?

[Iridium]

That is a much better outcome than the cold death end. I think soon we are going to realize that the universe is not accelerating in its expansion, but rather the 4th dimension is becoming more diluted with lower general universal density and this is what is causing the observed red-shift.Think about it, if the universe ends with all matter being obliterated back into energy then it might be an infinite cycle with a chance of us re-existing an infinite number of times :)

[Hum]

here's how it's going to end

1 million years from now our galaxy is going to collide with Andromeda in what will be beautify but likely uneventful event as billions of stars simply pass by each other

some billions of years from now the interior of the earth will cool to such a point to no longer support the magnetic shield

life will end right then

after that the sun is going to balloon and encompass the earth.. sooner or later the sun will settle into a white dwarf stage where it will literally just simmer for billions of years..

Long before that, Humans discover how to Time travel and escape into the distant Past. ;)

[+Warwagon MVC]

As if I give a ****, i'll be dead.

[cacoe]

Long before that, Humans discover how to Time travel and escape into the distant Past. ;)

And get stuck in an era of weird dinosaur stuff, unable to travel back to the future, only to end up getting cancelled as a species.