Our Unstable Universe: Why the False Vacuum Could Be Our End
The possible demise that comes without warning
Even before the Higgs boson was discovered almost exactly seven years ago, it had already been nicknamed the God particle. This is because the latest addition to our Standard Model of particle physics also signaled to us the existence of the Higgs field — a substance that’s invisible and yet pervasive across all of space. We inhabit it even now, surrounded by its non-zero energy that assigns particles their mass. Photons, electrons, quarks, and all other elementary particles that make up our world get their mass from their interaction with the Higgs field. The greater the resistance the particle faces while moving through the field, the greater the particle’s mass will measure. A neutrino, for example, has an easier time moving through the Higgs field than a tau lepton and so its mass will measure to be less than the tau. The mass of particles is a huge factor in determining our laws of physics. It dictates how everything interacts, and what chemistry can take place in the cold, murky expanse of space.
It seems, then, that we should be grateful to the Higgs boson for having the properties that it does. Its mass allows for life — ours, and that of stars and milky, roiling galaxies. Any change in the boson’s mass could mean that atoms would…
