Stephen Hawking bet Gordon Kane $100 that physicists would not discover the Higgs boson. After losing that bet when physicists detected the particle in 2012, Hawking lamented the discovery, saying it made physics less interesting. Now, in the preface to a new collection of essays and lectures called "Starmus," the famous theoretical physicist is warning that the particle could one day be responsible for the destruction of the known universe.
Hawking is not the only scientist who thinks so. The theory of a Higgs boson doomsday, where a quantum fluctuation creates a vacuum "bubble" that expands through space and wipes out the universe, has existed for a while. However, scientists don't think it could happen anytime soon.
"Most likely it will take 10 to the 100 years [a 1 followed by 100 zeroes] for this to happen, so probably you shouldn't sell your house and you should continue to pay your taxes," Joseph Lykken, a theoretical physicist at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois, said during his lecture at the SETI Institute on Sept. 2. "On the other hand it may already happened, and the bubble might be on its way here now. And you won't know because it's going at the speed of light so there's not going to be any warning." [Doomsday: 9 Real Ways Earth Could End]
The Higgs boson, sometimes referred to as the 'god particle,' much to the chagrin of scientists who prefer the official name, is a tiny particle that researchers long suspected existed. Its discovery lends strong support to the Standard Model of particle physics, or the known rules of particle physics that scientists believe govern the basic building blocks of matter. The Higgs boson particle is so important to the Standard Model because it signals the existence of the Higgs field, an invisible energy field present throughout the universe that imbues other particles with mass. Since its discovery two years ago, the particle has been making waves in the physics community.
Now that scientists measured the particle's mass last year, they can make many other calculations, including one that seems to spell out the end of the universe.
The Higgs boson is about 126 billion electron volts, or about the 126 times the mass of a proton. This turns out to be the precise mass needed to keep the universe on the brink of instability, but physicists say the delicate state will eventually collapse and the universe will become unstable. That conclusion involves the Higgs field.
The Higgs field emerged at the birth of the universe and has acted as its own source of energy since then, Lykken said. Physicists believe the Higgs field may be slowly changing as it tries to find an optimal balance of field strength and energy required to maintain that strength. [5 Implications of Finding a Higgs Boson Particle]
"Just like matter can exist as liquid or solid, so the Higgs field, the substance that fills all space-time, could exist in two states," Gian Giudice, a theoretical physicist at the CERN lab, where the Higgs boson was discovered, explained during a TED talk in October 2013.
Right now the Higgs field is in a minimum potential energy state — like a valley in a field of hills and valleys. The huge amount of energy required to change into another state is like chugging up a hill. If the Higgs field makes it over that energy hill, some physicists think the destruction of the universe is waiting on the other side.
But an unlucky quantum fluctuation, or a change in energy, could trigger a process called "quantum tunneling." Instead of having to climb the energy hill, quantum tunneling would make it possible for the Higgs field to "tunnel" through the hill into the next, even lower-energy valley. This quantum fluctuation will happen somewhere out in the empty vacuum of space between galaxies, and will create a "bubble," Lykken said.
Here's how Hawking describes this Higgs doomsday scenario in the new book: "The Higgs potential has the worrisome feature that it might become metastable at energies above 100 [billion] gigaelectronvolts (GeV). … This could mean that the universe could undergo catastrophic vacuum decay, with a bubble of the true vacuum expanding at the speed of light. This could happen at any time and we wouldn't see it coming." [10 Implications of Faster-Than-Light Travel]
The Higgs field inside that bubble will be stronger and have a lower energy level than its surroundings. Even if the Higgs field inside the bubble were slightly stronger than it is now, it could shrink atoms, disintegrate atomic nuclei, and make it so that hydrogen would be the only element that could exist in the universe, Giudice explained in his TED talk.
But using a calculation that involves the currently known mass of the Higgs boson, researchers predict this bubble would contain an ultra-strong Higgs field that would expand at the speed of light through space-time. The expansion would be unstoppable and would wipe out everything in the existing universe, Lykken said.
"More interesting to us as physicists is when you do this calculation using the standard physics we know about, it turns out we're right on the edge between a stable universe and an unstable universe," Lykken said. "We're sort of right on the edge where the universe can last for a long time, but eventually it should go 'boom.' There's no principle that we know of that would put us right on the edge."
Not all doom and gloom
Either all of space-time exists on this razor's edge between a stable and unstable universe, or the calculation is wrong, Lykken said.
If the calculation is wrong, it must come from a fundamental part of physics that scientists have not discovered yet. Lykken said one possibility is the existence of invisible dark matter that physicists believe makes up about 27 percent of the universe. Discovering how dark matter interacts with the rest of the universe could reveal properties and rules physicists don't know about yet.
The other is the idea of "supersymmetry." In the Standard Model, every particle has a partner, or its own anti-particle. But supersymmetry is a theory that suggests every particle also has a supersymmetric partner particle. The existence of these other particles would help stabilize the universe, Lykken said.
"We found the Higgs boson, which was a big deal, but we're still trying to understand what it means and we're also trying to understand all the other things that go along with it
"This is very much the beginning of the story and I've shown you some directions that story could go in, but I think there could be surprises that no one has even thought of," Lykken concludes in his lecture.
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Hawking alishindana na Gordon Kane kwa dola 100 kwamba wanasayansi hawataweza kugundua bosoni ya Higgs. Baada ya kupoteza mbio hizo wakati wanasayansi walipoigundua chembe hiyo mwaka 2012, Hawking alilalamika kwa sababu ya ugunduzi huo, akisema kwamba ulifanya fizikia isiwe ya kuvutia. "Katika utangulizi wa mkusanyiko wake mpya wa insha na hotuba, ""Starmus,"" mwanasayansi huyo maarufu wa fizikia anaonya kwamba chembe hiyo yaweza kuwa na jukumu la kuharibu ulimwengu wote." Hawking si mwanasayansi pekee anayefikiri hivyo. Nadharia ya siku ya mwisho ya Higgs, ambapo kutofautiana kwa quantum hutengeneza "bubble" ya utupu ambayo huenea katika nafasi na kufuta ulimwengu, imekuwapo kwa muda. Hata hivyo, wanasayansi hawafikiri kwamba hilo linaweza kutokea hivi karibuni. "Kama kuna uwezekano wa kuchukua miaka 10 hadi 100 [a 1 ikifuatiwa na sifuri 100] kwa hili kutokea, kwa hivyo labda haupaswi kuuza nyumba yako na unapaswa kuendelea kulipa kodi zako, ""Alisema Joseph Lycken, mwanafizikia wa nadharia katika Maabara ya Kitaifa ya Accelerator ya Fermi huko Batavia, Illinois, wakati wa hotuba yake katika Taasisi ya SETI Septemba 2." "Kwa upande mwingine inaweza kuwa tayari ilitokea, na Bubble inaweza kuwa njiani hapa sasa. "Hata hivyo, hakuna mtu anayeweza kugundua kwamba ni kwa kasi ya mwanga, hakuna mtu anayeweza kugundua kwamba ni kwa kasi ya mwanga, hakuna mtu anayeweza kugundua kwamba ni kwa kasi ya mwanga.""" "Hippo: ""Njia 9 halisi za Dunia inaweza kuishia"" - Higgs boson, wakati mwingine inajulikana kama ""chembe ya mungu,"" kwa uchungu mkubwa wa wanasayansi ambao wanapendelea jina rasmi, ni chembe ndogo ambayo watafiti wamedhani kwa muda mrefu ilikuwepo." Ugunduzi huu unatoa msaada mkubwa kwa Mfano wa Kiwango wa fizikia ya chembe, au sheria zinazojulikana za fizikia ya chembe ambazo wanasayansi wanaamini zinaongoza vipande vya msingi vya nyenzo. Higgs boson ni chembe muhimu sana kwa Standard Model kwa sababu inaashiria kuwepo kwa uwanja wa Higgs, uwanja wa nishati usioonekana unaopo katika ulimwengu wote ambao unaingiza chembe nyingine na wingi. Tangu ugunduzi wake miaka miwili iliyopita, chembe hiyo imekuwa ikifanya msukosuko katika jamii ya fizikia. Sasa kwa kuwa wanasayansi walipima uzito wa chembe hiyo mwaka jana, wanaweza kufanya mahesabu mengine mengi, kutia ndani moja ambayo inaonekana kueleza mwisho wa ulimwengu. Higgs boson ina nguvu ya umeme ya volti bilioni 126 au mara 126 ya protoni. Hii ni kiasi cha kiasi kinachohitajika ili kuifanya ulimwengu uwe karibu na kutokuwa imara, lakini wanasayansi wanasema hali hiyo ya hali ya chini itashindwa na ulimwengu utakuwa na hali ya kutokuwa imara. Hatua hiyo inahusisha uwanja wa Higgs. "Hippo ya Higgs ilitokea wakati ulimwengu ulipoanza na imekuwa chanzo cha nishati tangu wakati huo,"" alisema Lycken." Wataalamu wa fizikia wanaamini kwamba uwanja wa Higgs unaendelea kubadilika polepole huku ukijaribu kupata usawa bora wa nguvu za uwanja na nishati zinazohitajika kudumisha nguvu hizo. "Kama vile vitu vinavyoweza kuwepo kama kioevu au imara, hivyo uwanja wa Higgs, dutu ambayo hujaza nafasi-wakati wote, inaweza kuwepo katika hali mbili, ""Gian Giudice, mwanafizikia wa nadharia katika maabara ya CERN, ambapo Higgs boson iligunduliwa, alielezea wakati wa mazungumzo ya TED mnamo Oktoba 2013."" Hivi sasa uwanja wa Higgs uko katika hali ya chini ya nishati ya uwezekano <unk> kama bonde katika uwanja wa milima na mabonde. Kiasi kikubwa cha nishati kinachohitajika kubadilika kuwa hali nyingine ni kama kupanda mlima. Kama uwanja wa Higgs unafika juu ya kilima hicho cha nishati, baadhi ya wataalamu wa fizikia wanafikiri uharibifu wa ulimwengu unangojea upande mwingine. Lakini mabadiliko yasiyo ya kawaida ya quantum, au mabadiliko ya nishati, yanaweza kusababisha mchakato unaoitwa "kufanya handaki la quantum". Badala ya kupanda kilima cha nishati, kuchimba handaki la quantum kungefanya iwezekane kwa uwanja wa Higgs "kuchimba handaki" kupitia kilima hicho hadi kwenye bonde linalofuata lenye nishati ya chini zaidi. Mabadiliko haya ya quantum yatatokea mahali fulani katika utupu wa nafasi kati ya magalaksi, na yatatengeneza "bubble", Lykken alisema. "Hawking aliandika katika kitabu chake cha ""The New Theory of Physics"" kwamba ""potential ya Higgs ina sifa ya wasiwasi kwamba inaweza kuwa metastable katika nishati ya juu ya 100 [bilioni] gigaelectronvolts (GeV)." Hii inaweza kumaanisha kwamba ulimwengu inaweza kupitia uharibifu wa kutofautisha wa kutofautisha, na Bubble ya utupu wa kweli kupanua kwa kasi ya mwanga. Hilo laweza kutokea wakati wowote na hatungeona likija". [Mafanikio ya Kusafiri Kwa Haraka Kuliko Nuru] Shamba la Higgs ndani ya Bubble hiyo litakuwa na nguvu zaidi na kuwa na kiwango cha chini cha nishati kuliko mazingira yake. Hata kama uwanja wa Higgs ndani ya Bubble ungekuwa na nguvu kidogo kuliko ilivyo sasa, ungeweza kupunguza atomu, kuharibu nyuklia za atomu, na kufanya hivyo hivyo kwamba hidrojeni ingekuwa kipengele pekee ambacho kingeweza kuwepo katika ulimwengu, Giudice alielezea katika hotuba yake ya TED. Kwa kutumia hesabu inayohusisha wingi unaojulikana wa Higgs boson, watafiti wanakadiria kwamba Bubble hii ingekuwa na uwanja wa Higgs wenye nguvu sana ambao ungepanuka kwa kasi ya mwanga kupitia nafasi-wakati. Upanuzi huo haungeweza kukomeshwa na ungeharibu kila kitu katika ulimwengu uliopo, Lykken alisema. "Lakini, ""kitu cha kuvutia zaidi kwetu kama wanasayansi ni kwamba unapofanya hesabu hii kwa kutumia fizikia ya kawaida tunayoijua, inageuka kuwa tuko kwenye ukingo kati ya ulimwengu thabiti na ulimwengu usio thabiti,"" alisema Lycken." """Tuko karibu na hatua ambayo ulimwengu unaweza kudumu kwa muda mrefu, lakini hatimaye inapaswa kwenda 'boom.' """ Hakuna kanuni yoyote ambayo tunajua ambayo ingeweza kutufanya tuwe kwenye ukingo wa hatari". "Kama wakati wote wa nafasi unapatikana kwenye ukingo wa kisu kati ya ulimwengu thabiti na usio thabiti, au hesabu ni makosa, ""Lycken alisema." Ikiwa hesabu hiyo ni mbaya, ni lazima itokane na sehemu ya msingi ya fizikia ambayo wanasayansi hawajaigundua bado. Lycken alisema uwezekano mmoja ni kuwepo kwa dutu ya giza isiyoonekana ambayo wanasayansi wanaamini inafanya karibu asilimia 27 ya ulimwengu. Kujua jinsi nyenzo nyeusi inavyoingiliana na ulimwengu wote mzima kunaweza kufunua sifa na sheria ambazo wanasayansi hawajui. Ya pili ni wazo la "supersymmetry". Katika Mfano wa Kiwango, kila chembe ina mwenzi, au chembe yake mwenyewe ya kupambana. Lakini supersymmetry ni nadharia ambayo inapendekeza kila chembe pia ina chembe mshirika supersymmetric. Lykken alisema kwamba kuwepo kwa chembe hizo nyingine kungesaidia kudumisha utulivu wa ulimwengu. "Hii ni kwa sababu ya Higgs boson, ambayo ni ""mfano wa ajabu"" na ""mfano wa ajabu"" na ""mfano wa ajabu"" na ""mfano wa ajabu"" na ""mfano wa ajabu"" na ""mfano wa ajabu"" na ""mfano wa ajabu"" na ""mfano wa ajabu"" na ""mfano wa ajabu"" na ""mfano wa ajabu"" na ""mfano wa ajabu"" na ""mfano wa ajabu"" na ""mfano wa ajabu"" na ""mfano wa ajabu.""" Kujiandikisha kwa Live Science jarida la kila siku sasa Kupata ulimwengu wa uvumbuzi wa kuvutia zaidi alitoa moja kwa moja kwa sanduku lako la barua.