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Saturday, July 13, 2013

End of the Universe can happen at any time

Last year, the Large Hadron Collider has been defined mass "God particle" - the Higgs boson. Its importance was such that can turn all preconceived ideas about the "strength" of our world - the end of the universe can come at any moment, and the source of the death of the universe may appear at any point. Traditionally, the end of the universe, scientists "suggested" three basic scenarios . And they were all tied to the properties of dark energy - a hypothetical phenomenon through which modern physics explains why our universe is expanding with acceleration


The first scenario is the end of the universe - and the recession of heat death. If the accelerated expansion of the Universe will continue at about the present rate, then all galaxies beyond our Supercluster come out of the event horizon (their relative velocity exceeds the speed of light). Accordingly, we can access the universe is reduced to the size of our galaxy with neighbors who gradually "cool" to the state of heat death: stop star formation, stars burn out, black holes evaporate, there will be the era of eternal darkness ... All of this will be relevant in about a trillion years and beyond. When This cost remembers that life on Earth has become impossible "only" a billion years ... The second scenario is the end of the universe - a big gap. 

The theory of the Big Rip (Big Rip) comes from the fact that the force of the impact of dark energy is such that the rate of expansion of our universe will increase more and more, and the end of the universe will come in about 22 billion years. It will happen because as the speed increases the distance to the expansion of the event horizon will increasingly diminish, until all the components of the universe to explode objects and bodies, including atoms and subatomic particles ... So, for a billion years before the Big Rip dissolve clusters of galaxies, for 60 million years before the end of the universe - break up our galaxy, for 3 months - will scatter the solar system, and 30 minutes from the end - destroy the Earth (or any other star systems and planets, which will be intelligent life, given that the earth in the form in which we know it is that time will not be) ... 

The third scenario is the end of the universe - High compression. If the dark energy will not be not permanent and will not grow, but at a certain point of evolution of the Universe will subside, then we can expect great compression. This scenario describes the situation of the end of the universe, when under the influence of gravitational forces pull together the universe at one point. Until the moment when the universe did not decrease relative to the existing 100 times, everything will be as before, but then the universe would be like one big galaxy. The background radiation temperature reaches 274k and on Earth-like planets will begin to melt the ice, wherever he was. Further compression causes the microwave background radiation that would eclipse even the central star of a planetary system, burning on planets shoots past life. And soon after that will evaporate or be torn to pieces by the stars themselves and the planet. 

Next, the state of the universe would be similar to what it was in the first moments of its origin: the atoms split into atomic nuclei and electrons, radiation begins to dominate, and then start to break up atomic nuclei into protons and neutrons, and then decay protons and neutrons themselves to individual quarks are ... Grand unification. At this point, as in the moment of the Big Bang, stop running the known laws of physics, and the fate of the universe cannot be predicted ... These are the traditional scenario, the end of the universe. But now, after determining the mass of a new elementary particle, which, most likely, is the Higgs boson, in theory, not only figured out a new scenario for the death of our world, but it proved a fundamental instability. Higgs boson - a particle that the standard model is responsible for the mass of elementary particles. Its existence was predicted in 1964. But only after the construction of the most expensive scientific instrument in the history of mankind (LHC) has been "caught" a particle that likely it is. 

And most importantly - was determined mass of the Higgs boson, which was equal to 125-126 GeV. It is this value and enabled theoretical physicist Joseph Likkenu justify a new theory of the death of the universe. The fact that the mass of the Higgs boson allows the existence of "false vacuum." That is a vacuum in our universe may not have the lowest energy, and dwells only in the state with a local minimum of energy. This means that at any time can it slips into a state of "true vacuum". That is, at any time, in any part of the universe can be a quantum fluctuation, which resulted in minimal "bubble" of the vacuum gives rise to a new universe - because of their lower energy level it will absorb everything around them, extending the speed of light. This event and will be beginning of the end of our universe. On the other hand, one cannot speak about the end of the history of the universe, and of the replacement of one generation by another universe. 

However, the new-born universe will be radically different from the old one - so it will be a generational change when the baby eats its parent ... Joseph Lykken in his report reassured the audience that since the universe has existed for 13.75 billion years old, that means it is stable enough to survive even a very long time, and in addition, the expansion of the "bubble" of the new universe will be as fast as possible to convey information - that neither frightened nor prepared for it, we do not have time - the end of the universe happens transparently for all living things. This is the new scenario the death of the universe. It is curious above all because it gives us a chance to think again about the fragility of all things, including The universe as a whole. The fact that the world is such that the existence of both him and us in it - a real miracle the same specific calculations J. Likens will be possible only after the resumption of the LHC experiments in 2015 ...

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