The Higgs Boson Should Have Crushed the Universe 188
astroengine writes: This may seem a little far fetched, but if our understanding of the physics behind the recently-discovered Higgs boson (or, more specifically, the Higgs field — the ubiquitous field that endows all stuff with mass) is correct, our Universe shouldn't exist. That is, however, if another cosmological hypothesis is real, a hypothesis that is currently undergoing intense scrutiny in light of the BICEP2 results. "The mathematics to arise from accepted Higgs field theory suggests the universe is currently sitting comfortably in a Higgs field energy 'valley.' To get out of this valley and up the adjacent 'hill,' huge quantities of energy would need to be unleashed inside the field. But, if there were enough energy to push the universe over the hill and into the deeper energy valley next door, the universe would simply, and catastrophically, collapse.
This is where the BICEP2 results come in. If their observations are real and gravitational waves in the CMB prove cosmological inflation, the Higgs field has already been kicked by too much energy, pushing the Higgs field over the energy hill and deep into the neighboring valley’s precipice! For any wannabe universe, this is very bad news — the newborn universe would appear as a Big Bang, the Higgs field would become overloaded with an energetic inflationary period, and the whole lot would vanish in a blink of an eye."
This is where the BICEP2 results come in. If their observations are real and gravitational waves in the CMB prove cosmological inflation, the Higgs field has already been kicked by too much energy, pushing the Higgs field over the energy hill and deep into the neighboring valley’s precipice! For any wannabe universe, this is very bad news — the newborn universe would appear as a Big Bang, the Higgs field would become overloaded with an energetic inflationary period, and the whole lot would vanish in a blink of an eye."
Article with explanation for laymen (Score:5, Informative)
The mathematics to arise from accepted Higgs field theory suggests the universe is currently sitting comfortably in a Higgs field energy 'valley.' To get out of this valley and up the adjacent 'hill,' huge quantities of energy would need to be unleashed inside the field.
I have no idea what the 'valley' represents, nor the 'hill' so this explanation tells me nothing.
An article by Matt Strassler [profmattstrassler.com] that should explain more. In particular, this pic [wordpress.com]
The story about our vacuum having two 'valleys' depends crucially on no new physics existing beyond the already known fields, which is probably false.
Pure Bull Shit (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Pure Bull Shit (Score:5, Informative)
1) The higgs field instability is an inherent part of the higgs model; it falls out of the mathematics surprisingly simply and is years-old news at this point. Whether it's a practical concern rather depends on the masses involved, and there's every chance it will go away with improved models
2) The author isn't claiming that the Higgs doesn't exist. Regardless, we know that something more exotic than the standard model exists, because we general relativity and QM continue to be bitterly incompatible
3) There's no graviton in the standard model, and no obvious way to add one, nor any experimental evidence of one
who modded this moron "informative"? (Score:4, Informative)
Everything he wrote is blatantly false (see previous post).