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The Higgs boson could destroy the universe. There鈥檚 a chance this particle has collapsed in a distant corner of the cosmos, producing a bubble of expanding vacuum energy that could envelop us all.

The end of time and space as we know it is predicted by the standard model of particle physics, a theoretical framework describing all known particles and forces. Playing out these interactions to their logical end, researchers have found the most precise estimate of the lifetime of our universe ever made. The lights go out after 10¹³⁹ years.

Instead of a going out in a heat death whimper 鈥� in which dark energy accelerates the expansion of the universe until everything is a cold, featureless abyss 鈥� this scenario would end the cosmos with a bang. Prior estimates of cosmic lifetime in a Higgs-led Armageddon scenario have produced hazier figures of around 10¹⁰⁰ years.

鈥淲e wanted to fix all the previous approximations and get the exact date as pinned down as we could,鈥� says at Harvard University. To do this, he and his colleagues used what we know of particle masses and interactions, including the mass of the Higgs boson 鈥� the carrier of the force that gives other particles mass 鈥� which was found to be 125 gigaelectronvolts.

But this recorded value may not the lowest mass possible for this particle, simply a current stability point that might one day change. Careful calculations suggest that our universe might actually be a 鈥榝alse vacuum鈥�, as opposed to a true vacuum that is in the lowest-possible energy configuration.

Getting low

Think of the Higgs as being nestled in a shallow valley that represents its mass. On the other side of a rounded hill sits a deeper valley corresponding to a lower potential mass. Because it can鈥檛 roll over the hill, the Higgs is stuck in its present configuration.

But, subatomic particles like the Higgs can also behave as waves, and therefore don鈥檛 have perfectly well-defined positions. There always exists some probability that the Higgs will tunnel through the hill and come to rest in the lower valley, resulting in it having a lower mass than the one we鈥檝e observed. This is where things get truly weird.

Because the Higgs field endows mass to other particles, a change in its properties would wreak havoc on the building blocks of our universe. Chemistry, and therefore life, relies on these values so our current way of being would be completely obliterated by this reorganization.

Out with a bang

Given that the universe we see is only a small slice visible from Earth, the probability of even extremely unlikely things happening somewhere we can鈥檛 see goes up significantly. If our universe is infinitely large 鈥� a possibility that鈥檚 tough to disprove 鈥� there鈥檚 a chance that this Higgs collapse has already occurred beyond our view, producing a ballooning bubble of negative energy and a madcap alternate universe inside of it.

One day, it could reach us and engulf our part of the cosmos. According to Einstein鈥檚 theory of relativity, information can鈥檛 travel faster than the speed of light so there would be no warning of its arrival. 鈥淲e will never see it coming,鈥� says Andreassen.

鈥淚t is sobering to envision this bubble, with its wall of negative energy, barrelling towards us at the speed of light,鈥� Andreassen and his colleagues write in their聽paper. Instead of a slow stretch into nothingness, our universe may be headed for an abrupt collision with one of these bubble walls.

Seeds of destruction

The extreme precision of the new finding is impressive, says 聽at Durham University in the UK. 鈥淥n the other hand, what they have not done at all is considered gravity.鈥�

Neither does the standard model, which is woefully incomplete 鈥� it cannot yet account for dark matter or dark energy. Many extensions have been proposed that include particles that might act as stabilisers to the Higgs, potentially allowing the universe to exist in perpetuity.

Gregory鈥檚 own work on this problem finds that our cosmic destruction is far more likely. She has shown that the massive curvature of space-time surrounding a microscopic black hole should act as a seed for this Higgs collapse, a bit like a speck of dust introduced into boiling water that generates a steam bubble.

The fact that it hasn鈥檛 happened during our universe鈥檚 long lifetime suggests that some stabilizing particles might already be in place preventing the apocalypse.