- The universe is permeated by a field known as the Higgs field, which gives everything its mass.
- But the Higgs field is completely unstable, and if it were to “bubble,” it would change reality so much that everything in the bubble would cease to exist. .
- A group of scientists have now argued that the existence of ancient black holes should have caused the Higgs field to “oscillate” so that nothing could have been created.
The early days of the universe are shrouded in mystery. Besides, it’s not like we can go back in time and see for ourselves. Instead, we have the edge of piecing together the ancient history of our universe from the dots, the sounds and the sad waves that spread to the edge.
As a result, the models we create for these ancient times are often challenged by new calculations or physical observations that challenge the roles we have set so far. And recently, a group of physicists did just that. According to their new study—which is now being accepted for publication in the journal Body Letters B-if most of our current models were correct, we wouldn’t exist at all. Nothing was coming. As things are now, the entire universe should have perished.
But, it is clear that the universe has not committed itself. Besides, we’re here to ask all these mind-blowing questions. So, what’s to give?
It all comes down to two things: primordial black holes and the Higgs boson particle.
The discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012 is considered one of the greatest achievements of modern physics. This is mainly because it confirmed the existence of the Higgs field – the electric or magnetic field that gives matter its weight. It is complex quantum mechanics, but it all boils down to this: if there is no Higgs field, there is nothing.
All this means that the Higgs field is very important, and very important as it is. Because here is a fun fact that is not scary at all – in theory, the Higgs field can change.
“The Higgs field may not be in the lowest energy state it could be,” Lucien Heurtier, one of the researchers of the new study, said in the article Conversation. “That means it can change its state, drop to a lower energy state at a certain point. However, if that were to happen, it would change the laws of physics dramatically.”
In fact, Heurtier explained that if the Higgs field were to drop to a lower energy level, it would cause the formation of small “bubbles” of space that were under completely different laws of physics than the universe as we know it.
He wrote: “In such a bubble, the mass of the electrons would suddenly change, and so would their interactions with other particles. Protons and neutrons—which make up the nucleus of an atom and are made of quarks—could suddenly drift apart. In fact, anyone who has such a change will no longer be able to report it. ”
Fortunately, that won’t happen anytime soon—no need to panic. But this idea presents a problem. Most of our examples are from the early universe, that should have happened already.
And that’s because of the second thing: the first black hole. Ancient black holes are very hypothetical objects like the black holes we see today, but orders of magnitude smaller in mass – they can be as small as a gram. According to most current models, they formed a second time immediately after the Big Bang, during what is known as inflation. The parts of the universe were so dense at that time that they could collapse on their own and form these small black holes without the help of a supernova. Just… shwoomp! Into a black hole.
Now, these things—if they ever existed—were temporary. They would have burned up and evaporated a lot dang fast. But according to Heurtier and his team, they could have been around long enough to have a significant impact on the Higgs field.
Those bubbles we mentioned earlier? The ones that destroy the universe? Yes, ancient black holes would have caused them to appear everywhere.
The research team confirms that if black holes existed during this early inflation as many recent models suggest, the field would have been shaking like a shaking can of soda. It is so, in fact, that nothing could have been created before.
But we exist, like everything around us. So, where does that leave us?
Heurtier and his team offer two answers to these questions. The first is that our models are wrong, and that we should abandon the idea of ancient black holes altogether. After all, we know for sure that the Higgs field exists, so if there is a problem, it must be in the primordial black holes.
It’s great? No, no indeed. Another condition raised by the team is that we are missing deep physics—namely, that there is something big we don’t understand about the way the Higgs field works. That’s often a choice in high-level physics—maybe there’s a law or behavior or force or particle we don’t know that will unravel the whole thing.
Indeed, this will not be the last group to investigate the theoretical interactions between the Higgs field and the first black holes. Maybe this new understanding will stick, and maybe it won’t. But that’s the best part of science – you can, and should, question everything. Who knows what secrets you will unlock?
Jackie is a writer and editor from Pennsylvania. He is passionate about writing about space and physics, and loves to share the amazing wonders of the universe with anyone who will listen. He is looked after in his office by his two cats.
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