Why Are We Still Here?

The BICEP2 telescope in Antarctica has led to significant new results on the early universe. Photo: Steffen Richter, Harvard University.

British cosmologists are puzzled: We, and our entire universe, shouldn’t exist. Our universe should have blinked out of existence an instant after it was first created.

According to a new study done by cosmologists at King’s College London (KCL), our universe shouldn’t have lasted for more than a second after the Big Bang if we follow the rules of the Standard Model (suggested by the Higgs boson that was tracked down in 2012), along with recent astronomical observations. The British study combines the latest Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarisation (BICEP2)  telescope observations with the properties of the Higgs boson studied in the CMS and ATLAS experiments at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator. The KCL team analyzed what these BICEP2’s observations, combined with the information gleaned by particle physics from the Higgs boson, would mean for the stability of our universe, and concluded that we are not supposed to exist today. These startling results are not yet widely accepted by cosmologists, but if proven right, it confirms the inflation theory  and it would mean a big leap in science’s understanding of our universe.

In March this year, scientists discovered that there are still gravitational energy waves detectable on the cosmic microwave background, caused by the rapid expansion of our universe after the ‘Big Bang’. This phenomenon, also known as cosmic inflation, suggests the existence of multiple universes.

By studying the Higgs boson, physicists claimed that our Universe is sitting in a valley of the “Higgs field”, which is part of the mechanism that gives mass to particles. However, there is another theoretical valley in this field that is much deeper, but our universe is saved from tipping into it by a large energy barrier. The BICEP2’s results predict that our universe would have received large jolts during the cosmic inflation phase, which would have pushed it into the other valley of the Higgs field within a fraction of a second, causing our nascent universe to collapse in an instant.

Obviously this is an unacceptable prediction of the theory because if this had happened, there wouldn’t be anybody around to wonder about it today. So could the findings of the BICEP2 study be incorrect? BICEP2 researchers did concede a possibility in their study that the findings were actually influenced by polarization effects generated by nearby dust in our galaxy, but aside from such a possible error, the only option to explain why we are still here is if there is some other process going on that scientists have yet to discover. “If BICEP2 is shown to be correct, it tells us that there has to be interesting new particle physics beyond the Standard Model,” explains Robert Hogan, the Ph.D. student at KCL who led the study.

http://www.ras.org.uk/news-and-press/2469-should-the-higgs-boson-have-caused-our-universe-to-collapse

Total
0
Shares

#64 AI and the Global Brain

Podcast with

Trying to wrap our minds, hearts, and bodies around the rapidly evolving field of AI

Decolonizing Science

Article by

We are witnessing a resurgence of indigenous knowledge and growing acknowledgement of its scientific value worldwide

Wholeness & Fragmentation

Video with

The problem with our "civilized" and compartmentalized ways of thinking, which is fragmented.

Assembly Theory

Article by

Bold New 'Theory of Everything' Could Unite Physics And Evolution

The Star Compass: kāpehu whetū

Article by

Indigenous Polynesian technology for navigating using the stars

#55 Cerebrospinal Fluid

Podcast with

A fascinating lecture on the potential mystical properties of fluid in our bodies

The Convergence of Science and Spirituality

Video with ,

A video version of our popular Sounds of SAND Podcast episode

A 9-minute journey inside a black hole

Video with

Ever wonder what would happen if we got sucked into a black hole? Turns out we could live in it — if it was big enough.

Support SAND with a Donation

Science and Nonduality is a nonprofit organization. Your donation goes directly towards the development of our vision and the growth of our community.
Thank you for your support!