Universe avoided instant destruction: Scientists reveal 'cosmic lockdown' secret
Space protected itself from sudden catastrophe (image: Merlin Lightpainting)
The universe may have avoided catastrophic decay thanks to a kind of "cosmic lockdown" - scientists suggest that quantum processes could have stabilized its state and halted dangerous changes, according to a study published in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics.
What is a "false vacuum" and why is it dangerous?
The Higgs boson, a fundamental particle that gives mass to everything in the universe (including electrons, which make up matter), plays a key role in this story.
Astrophysicists explained that the universe was like a ball stuck in a cozy dip on the side of a high hill, a state known as a “false vacuum” that seemed stable, while an even lower point, called the “true vacuum,” existed at the bottom of the hill.
They added that, according to the laws of quantum mechanics, this “ball” could pass through the wall of the hill by undergoing a quantum tunneling transition and fall to the very bottom. They explained that if this happened, a bubble with new laws of physics would emerge in space and begin expanding at nearly the speed of light, wiping out atoms, planets, and all known forms of matter in its path.
"Cosmic lockdown": how the universe locked itself down
Researchers from Syracuse University (US) and the University of Portsmouth (UK) decided to investigate how quantum fields behaved in the first moments after the Big Bang, when the cosmos was expanding at an incredible speed.
It turned out that quantum fields do not exist in isolation. Due to constant interaction with the environment, a decoherence effect occurs—a process during which microscopic particles lose their so-called "quantum weirdness" and begin to behave like ordinary physical objects.
This phenomenon creates the so-called quantum Zeno effect.
The researchers explained that, in simplified terms, when a quantum system was continuously “observed” by its environment, it found it extremely difficult to change its state or make a “jump.” They added that interaction with the surrounding environment acted as a constant monitor, locking the universe in the state it was in at that time. As a result, a kind of “cosmic lockdown” emerged, depriving the quantum field of the ability to break through the barrier.
Can humanity sleep peacefully?
The authors of the study note that their model is simplified and does not take into account all factors - for example, changes in the rate of cosmic expansion or the influence of the field itself on gravity.
Nevertheless, it does not provide a one hundred percent guarantee that the Higgs field will not change sometime in the distant future.
However, scientists have achieved the main goal - to prove the existence of a real physical safeguard that keeps our universe from a catastrophic quantum jump and preserves the stability of our world.
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