Some wonder: Why didn’t the Higgs boson cause our universe to collapse?

_{Denyse O'Leary

June 24, 2014

Cosmology, News}

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British cosmologists are puzzled: they predict that the Universe should not have lasted for more than a second. This startling conclusion is the result of combining the latest observations of the sky with the recent discovery of the Higgs boson. Robert Hogan of King’s College London (KCL) will present the new research on 24 June at the Royal Astronomical Society’s National Astronomy Meeting in Portsmouth.

…

The problem is that the BICEP2 results predict that the universe would have received large ‘kicks’ during the cosmic inflation phase, pushing it into the other valley of the Higgs field within a fraction of a second. If that had happened, the universe would have quickly collapsed in a Big Crunch.

“This is an unacceptable prediction of the theory because if this had happened we wouldn’t be around to discuss it” said Hogan, who is a PhD student at KCL and led the study.

So, for once, reality as we experience it counts for something? A good beginning. Well no, really, a good reboot.

Meanwhile, ya gotta love this title:

Higgs boson looks even Higgs-ier:

Now, researchers working with the mammoth CMS particle detector at the LHC have seen the Higgs decaying into fermions—either two tau leptons (above), heavier cousins of the electron, or two bottom quarks, beefy cousins of the up quarks and down quarks that make up protons and neutrons. Reported online yesterday in Nature Physics, the result strongly suggests that, as it lurks “virtually” in the vacuum, the new particle is the universal mass giver that the Higgs is supposed to be.

See also: The Science Fictions series at your fingertips (cosmology).

Comments

From the first article
"there is a different valley which is much deeper, but our universe is preventing from falling into it by a large energy barrier."
From the second article
it lurks “virtually” in the vacuum
Here are a few notes I collected thus far in this area of 'energy barrier' and 'virtual particles':
Cosmic coincidence spotted - Philip Ball - 2008 Excerpt: One interpretation of dark energy is that it results from the energy of empty space, called vacuum energy. The laws of quantum physics imply that empty space is not empty at all, but filled with particles popping in and out of existence. This particle ‘fizz’ should push objects apart, just as dark energy seems to require. But the theoretical value of this energy is immense — so huge that it should blow atoms apart, rather than just causing the Universe to accelerate. Physicists think that some unknown force nearly perfectly cancels out the vacuum energy, leaving only the amount seen as dark energy to push things apart. This cancellation is imperfect to an absurdly fine margin: the unknown 'energy' differs from the vacuum energy by just one part in 10^122. It seems incredible that any physical mechanism could be so finely poised as to reduce the vacuum energy to within a whisker of zero, but it seems to be so. http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080219/full/news.2008.610.html Vacuum energy - (The 'infinite power of God' literally pervades all of reality): Excerpt: Vacuum energy is an underlying background energy that exists in space even when the space is devoid of matter (free space). (Vacuum energy has a postulated) value of 10^113 Joules per cubic meter. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_energy and: (10^113 joules) per (cubic meter) = 10 ^113 pascals (Pa) and: 10^113 Pa approx = 4.6×10^113 Pa = 6.7×10^109 psi; Of note: The Planck pressure (4.63x10^108 bar), not reached except shortly after the Big Bang or in a black hole. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orders_of_magnitude_%28pressure%29 How the Power of Intention Alters Matter - Dr. William A. Tiller Excerpt: "Most people think that the matter is empty, but for internal self consistency of quantum mechanics and relativity theory, there is required to be the equivalent of 10 to 94 grams of mass energy, each gram being E=MC2 kind of energy. Now, that's a huge number, but what does it mean practically? Practically, if I can assume that the universe is flat, and more and more astronomical data is showing that it's pretty darn flat, if I can assume that, then if I take the volume or take the vacuum within a single hydrogen atom, that's about 10 to the minus 23 cubic centimeters. If I take that amount of vacuum and I take the latent energy in that, there is a trillion times more energy there than in all of the mass of all of the stars and all of the planets out to 20 billion light-years. That's big, that's big. And if consciousness allows you to control even a small fraction of that, creating a big bang is no problem." - Dr. William Tiller - has been a professor at Stanford U. in the Department of materials science & Engineering http://www.beyondtheordinary.net/williamtiller.shtml Quantum physics and consciousness – video - William Tiller (3:49 minute mark) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xk6UODs8Q4g&feature=player_detailpage#t=231
As to consciousness touching that energy:
A Quantum Hologram of Christ's Resurrection? by Chuck Missler Excerpt: “You can read the science of the Shroud, such as total lack of gravity, lack of entropy (without gravitational collapse), no time, no space—it conforms to no known law of physics.” The phenomenon of the image brings us to a true event horizon, a moment when all of the laws of physics change drastically. http://www.khouse.org/articles/2008/847 Turin shroud - new evidence – (event horizon) - video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kEvRqrhudU Scientists say Turin Shroud is supernatural - December 2011 Excerpt: "The results show that a short and intense burst of UV directional radiation can colour a linen cloth so as to reproduce many of the peculiar characteristics of the body image on the Shroud of Turin," they said. And in case there was any doubt about the preternatural degree of energy needed to make such distinct marks, the Enea report spells it out: "This degree of power cannot be reproduced by any normal UV source built to date." http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/scientists-say-turin-shroud-is-supernatural-6279512.html
Supplemental note:
Richard Feynman: Mathematicians versus Physicists - video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obCjODeoLVw Quote of note at the 6:45 minute mark of preceding video: "It always bothers me that in spite of all this local business, what goes on in a tiny, no matter how tiny, region of space, and no matter how tiny a region of time, according to laws as we understand them today, it takes a computing machine an infinite number of logical operations to figure out. Now how can all that be going on in that tiny space? Why should it take an infinite amount of logic to figure out what one stinky tiny bit of space-time is going to do? - Richard Feynman - was one of the founding fathers of QED
Myself, being a Christian Theist, I find it rather comforting to know that it takes an 'infinite amount of logic to figure out what one stinky tiny bit of space-time is going to do':
John1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
of note: 'the Word' in John1:1 is translated from 'Logos' in Greek. Logos is the root word from which we derive our modern word logic.bornagain77_{June 25, 2014
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The quote by Theoretical Physicist Nima Arkani Hamed made after the discovery of the low mass Higgs is a keeper: "The Universe is inevitable. The Universe is impossible" Inevitable because the Laws of QM & Relativity leave no other possibility. Impossible because the Laws are impossibly fine-tuned. Oh well, at least it is a terrifyingly beautiful Universe:)ppolish_{June 24, 2014
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