Experimental Evidence of a Phenomenon That May End The Universe - False Vacuum Decay

[@THINKMACHINE]

This reminds me of a short story in which scientists experimenting with vacuum decay realized that we actually are already in a bubble of 'true vacuum', that dark matter is in fact matter that is still in a false vacuum. The experiment causes our bubble to start expanding at the speed of light, releasing that potential energy as a bunch of heat, which leads to the discovery of alien life... dead alien life that just got instantaneously boiled to death by the transition to true vacuum.

[@tellesu]

That's fun 😂

[@seraphik]

what's this story called?

[@pt4103]

also wanna know the name of the story

[@zhangeldy4097]

Hilarious!

[@crashstudi0s]

Yeah, gonna leave this here for the name of the story.

[@geekjokes8458]

seems like a hell of a stretch to say they demonstrated false vacuum decay... at best they showed that, *with a perturbation* that is likely _specific to that system,_ meta-stable decay in a supercooled "macroscopic" system is possible, again, given a perturbation

[@FunkyDexter]

Exactly. I'm extremely unimpressed myself

[@anonymes2884]

That seems to be the pattern with most of these "analogy" experiments - they demonstrate an effect that can be considered _analogous_ to a purely quantum phenomenon and lots of people (mostly journalists, people on social media and the press department of the university/corporation in question) excitedly claim it therefore tells us something about the actual phenomenon. Meanwhile, physicists shake their heads a bit at the current state of science journalism and then pretty much carry on as before. (it's like the "wormhole created in a quantum computer" nonsense from a year or so ago)

[@user-Aaron-]

Isn't that the whole point though? To demonstrate in a sim that it's possible via perturbation? I'd think any quantum fluctuations large enough to perturb the fabric of space time to this effect, however statistically improbable, would be by definition specific to their system, no? This probably isn't the greatest experiment, sure, and we can't draw any conclusions from it one way or the other, but I still think it's interesting and useful, if only to birth better experiments on this subject.

[@iyziejane]

This nucleation mechanism in this experiment is the same mechanism used in models of metastable vacuum decay. The ferromagnetic Bose condensate in this experiment is modeled by a continuum quantum field theory (a matter field since these are atoms). In classical mechanics we derive the wave equation for a classical vibrating piece of string by considering it as consisting of an infinite number of small particles connected together by springs - in the same way our descriptions of interacting quantum matter are deeply connected to the descriptions of continuum fields. The novelty of this experiment was to produce detailed measurements of the time dependence of the relaxation process, and to show that these match the usual models of how metastable states decay in quantum field theories. It's boring in that it gives the results theorists like me already expect, but if you're the kind of person that likes experimental confirmation of our expectations then it's a nice result.

[@Kim-q8w]

Still don't see this as experimental

[@chickendmac9085]

Another day another existential crisis

[@noterrormanagement]

Ah well who cares. We won't live forever anyway.

[@robink.9966]

..could be your last

[@PetraKann]

In Physics there are no crises - just neuroses

[@ericpode6095]

I'm sort of wondering why their trying to end the Universe.🤔

[@theobservationsreal3291]

It is pointless to resist👀 🙈🙉🙊 👁

[@Doctor_Glados]

A vacuum bubble would need to be really large to overcome the outside pressure, so it would take a really really really long time for it to appear in the wild. If it already has appeared, it’s most likely never going to reach us since it can only spread with the speed of light while space can go much faster. Also didn’t the universe started with expansion much larger than the speed of light? If so the bubble explanation doesnt seem to fit.

[@Flumsycat]

This decay could change the laws of physics, at least that's what Anton said. 8:37 he says "we have no idea how physics would change" it could just not change at all but if it changes that would explain it

[@Flumsycat]

I tend to think you are right though, I think C is a very basic physical thing, which wouldn't change, but idk

[@Nefville]

I think you are right about the expansion of the universe outpacing the expansion of this lower energy 'bubble' but the one question I have is if vacuum energy is a property of space itself then could it potentially expand faster than light? Still I don't think so and figuring out the odds that in nearly 14 billion years with* all the fluctuations that have ever happened, none have caused this lower energy bubble yet - I'm thinking we're fine.

[@someguy-k2h]

Thank you for pointing this out. This is probably going on all the time and the tensor energy of free space is closing it up just as fast as it happens. Only when a very improbably large bubble forms that overcomes that pressure do we see anything.

[@doomstarks182]

The answer is the Aether exist

[@jmpattillo]

I remember reading about this in Katie Mack’s book. Since the vacuum decay bubble will be expanding at the speed of light, you’d never see it coming and wouldn’t feel a thing. Nothing to lose sleep over.

[@ericpode6095]

A bit like Tiddles, the cat that guy Schroedinger owned?

[@2019inuyasha]

Also it would not reach your current position...lol. since space expands faster then light...

[@ruminas011]

​@@2019inuyashaonly after certain distance....

[@Losfromtheinternet]

@@2019inuyashadefinitely not the takeaway from the things I’ve read.

[@oberonpanopticon]

@@2019inuyashaOnly if it collapsed in the very distant universe

[@tankerock]

"Self Annihilate into Nothing" - Added to my list of fears before sleeping

[@ikitclaw7146]

Not a bad way to go really, one instant your there, next your none existent, infact as it goes thats prolly the best way to go into the dreamless sleep.

[@user-gv4cx7vz8t]

​@@ikitclaw7146Dust we are, and it's the dustless vacuum cleaner.

[@bugwar5545]

Yer funny. Worry over something you can do nothing about and will have no idea when it does happen is the true mark of an idiot.

[@jheart05]

That’s what happens anyway

[@cliveruffle6016]

A physicist's last word: 'oops'.

[@anonymes2884]

"Huh, it didn't do that in _my_ laboratory..."

[@jemborg]

I shall now reproduce this universe ending energy in the laboratory....oops.

[@Codysdab]

Fermi paradox solution a physicist says "oops"

[@sproccoli]

Oh, hello Dr. Freeman, I ... oops.

[@Andre_XX]

He wouldn't have time to say 'oops'!

[@someguy-k2h]

To be clear, the universe doesn't just "end". It is replaced with a new universe with a lower energy state. It's not known, or possible not to know, what is left over.

[@bugwar5545]

Oh that helps so much.

[@someguy-k2h]

@@bugwar5545 Don't worry, false vacuum state erasure is the best way to go.

[@mrsnoo86]

Universe is eternal

[@ghfgxijaorgf5393]

that is actually scary, but the "energy state" is hard to understand

[@bengoodwin2141]

One thing that is important to note is that although a model can show such a thing occurring, There has to have been a possible lower state, in other words, the vacuum has to be false. We don't know if a vacuum as we know it really is the lowest possible state or not, regardless of whether a lower point can have a temporarily lower energy that may or may not be stable

[@axle.student]

I like this idea. I am grappling over the concept of of a primordial time-void state of what may later become the spacetime universe that we are familiar with. I am not an indentured physicist so when I speak about the idea, I either don't get the specific terminology correct, or I am just completely wrong. I didn't know about it until recently, but a couple days back I encountered a theory similar to what I have been thinking over for years; "Hartle-Hawking state". From what I can see the only real difference is that I am assigning primacy to Time rather than the Void. > Although empty of matter, mass, energy etc, I can see a certain tension or potential in the primordial time-void. Maybe this is related to that "Low (or zero) energy state" and then the meta stable state emerges from that forming energy, bigbang/inflation and then ultimately what we call the cosmos?

[@bengoodwin2141]

@@axle.student none of this makes any sense

[@teamacio9043]

@@axle.student You're gonna have to explain that a little better

[@axle.student]

@@bengoodwin2141 In short look at the "Hartle-Hawking state" proposal. But instead of give primacy to the Void, give it to Time ( as a thought experiment). So this "Hartle-Hawking state" proposal looks at the fundamental conditions/state before the theoretical big bang. In essence how may the universe have began. It's just thought theory like any other "How did the universe begin proposals.

[@axle.student]

@@teamacio9043 In short look at the "Hartle-Hawking state" proposal. But instead of give primacy to the Void, give it to Time ( as a thought experiment). So this "Hartle-Hawking state" proposal looks at the fundamental conditions/state before the theoretical big bang. In essence how may the universe have began. It's just thought theory like any other "How did the universe begin proposals. > I can go deeper, but it's difficult, and heavily into the philosophical realm at that point.

[@JustMe-dc6ks]

The first rule of vacuum decay research: Do not poke the false vacuum!

[@Elinzar]

Quantum bubble: i can erase your entire existence Some Random Scientist: Lets make one for the memez

[@Flumsycat]

lol thought exactly that

[@Kioki1-x8p]

They'll do something that will put entire humanity at risk of extinction.

[@ghoulbuster1]

We do a little vacuum

[@michaldlugosz1965]

@@Kioki1-x8p It is just a model, not real true vacuum bubble...

[@Kioki1-x8p]

@@michaldlugosz1965Yes, I know, what I was trying to say is when their experiments go out of control. Like how COVID-19 lab leak occurred.

[@wizardlyfrog]

I'm writing a book series about humanity purposefully causing false vacuum decay, after figuring out how to isolate themselves from the new state. If you know its going to happen, but not when, be the when. Things dont exactly go to plan... First book is out: Grandson by Jennifer L Armitage (I already wrote all of them for consistency, but edits for release are slow until it can be my job.)

[@sbstratos79]

Couldn't find a Goodreads listing for it.

[@1ksweatyrikers455]

have you read Greg Egan's "Schild's Ladder"? it's about post-human scientists accidentally creating a vacuum bubble and the ensuing conflict over those that want to try to destroy it and those that want to live with it. sounds similar.

[@wizardlyfrog]

@@sbstratos79 I even had to email them because it was attributed to the wrong person by their algorithm... It shows up when I google the title and name. The series is Templerunners and it'll have a beetle on the cover.

[@wizardlyfrog]

@@1ksweatyrikers455 Not yet, but I am absolutely going to read that now! That sounds awesome.

[@scottabc72]

Sounds interesting

[@FrancisFjordCupola]

If it does... no one can notice because everyone ceases to exist. So. Why bother? The answer is of course: curiosity. To boldly pop out of existence where no one has popped out before.

[@Napoleonic_S]

Doesn't the video say that the cosmic speed limit still has to be adhered to? So as long as the popping bubble doesn't originate from earth we would see things suddenly disappear propagating throughout the universe "slowly"? Also doesn't this basically support the idea that black holes are potential vacuum decay machines that produce new universes on the other side?

[@thatotherted3555]

@@Napoleonic_S The light from other stars (and so on) would continue to reach us until the bubble does, because they'd be traveling to us at the same speed. We wouldn't know they were disappearing until it happened to us too.

[@Napoleonic_S]

@@thatotherted3555 But they have different distances from here, wouldn't far away objects disappear first?

[@willythemailboy2]

@@Napoleonic_S No, because the bubble that destroyed them would be just behind the last light they emitted. Since the time it takes light to reach us from distant stars would exactly match the time the bubble took to reach us, we would see all stars disappear simultaneously with the bubble hitting us. The perceptible time delay would be zero. Say the bubble starts 8 lightyears away from us and destroys a star. The light from that star - and the bubble - will take 8 years to reach us from that distance. Four years later that last bit of light and the bubble hit Alpha Centauri, destroying that star as well. The original star's light is still 4 lightyears away from us and will take 4 more years to reach us. Alpha Centauri's last light is also 4 light years away and will take 4 years to reach us. The last light both stars gave off will arrive at Earth simultaneously and the bubble right after that light.

[@willythemailboy2]

Never underestimate what you might learn by studying something that seems unrelated. One of the strangest occurrences of that is how trying to figure out the age of the Earth led to the banning of leaded gasoline.

[@TheOnlyBiodude]

I always did have a fear of the universe turning off unexpectedly like the power to my house during a storm. I guess this could be the equivalent of a instant cease to exist.

[@JathraDH]

Well I wouldn't fear that because if it happened you would never know it did. You would never experience any moment to have fear of so no sense worrying about it.

[@TheOnlyBiodude]

@JathraDH there is a sense of waste and fear that comes with acknowledging the idea. And there's always the question of whether there will be warning signs before the happening. How would you live life knowing any second could be the trigger of an entire existence collapse. It is very unlike any disaster concept before it.

[@JathraDH]

@@TheOnlyBiodude Well because I already came to terms with that concept long ago. Living your life in fear of such a thing isn't living. If it happens there is literally nothing you can do to stop it. I refuse to let things beyond my control bother me.

[@kingofflames738]

You kinda wonder what mindset you'd have to have to try these experiments. "Let's see if it works and hope it doesn't and if it does let's hope we stop it just before it does." Literally experimenting with the universe's on/off switch.

[@pressaltf4forfreevbucks179]

The didnt bring the vacuum foam into a lower energy state but a low temperature gas. Its just an analogue. Like using whirlpools to simulate a black hole it obviously has no such risks. Humanity aint there yet lmao😂

[@stocky9218]

Let’s just edge the entire universe lol

[@ericpode6095]

They thought the A bomb might ignite the atmosphere. Wouldn't be the first time they've done something stupid, bit unfair on the Aliens though! 👽

[@ZumaZoom07]

We never learn, we always get to this point and reset everything and forget not to do it again

[@crow2989]

@@stocky9218the rot consumes

[@kennickel878]

If it's expanding at lightspeed it can't engulf everything because, regardless of where it starts, much of the universe is already beyond its light horizon.

[@stargazer5784]

Good point old boy.

[@NeonVisual]

What would happen if there was vacuum decay in a black hole singularity? Would still have the same energy and so remain a singularity?, If so, could it create new space inside the singularity as it's own causally disconnected universe?

[@yalexander9432]

I always thought the energy densities inside a black hole should allow a false vacuum bubble to appear. Maybe it could replace the singularity. Spacetime undergoing a phase transition isn't far fetched

[@IncoGnito-ji5du]

Like a sudden infinite expansion of space, within the black hole? An entire universe? Perhaps... like ours?

[@saaszon5903]

If that were to happen, i think the "bubble" would not expand due to the gravitational effects of the blackhole until it evaporated through hawking radiation, although it would probably "consume" the singularity

[@TheRadischen]

bro is using siency sounding words that make no sense when used together like this

[@NeonVisual]

@@TheRadischen Think you're in the wrong channel fella.

[@A-lik]

"CERN accidentally destroys the universe in an experiment that replicates vacuum decay" was definitely NOT on my 2024 bingo card

[@AndrewSternkern]

Could it be on a Monday morning, please? I would hate it to ruin the weekend.

[@u.v.s.5583]

Nothing happens on Monday mornings. All experiments are run during weekends when the researchers do not have lectures and seminars to run.

[@hereticpariah6_66]

It'll probably happen on a Thursday. ...I could never quite get the "hang" of Thursdays...

[@sputukgmail]

@@hereticpariah6_66I see what you did there - as long as you know where your towel is though…

[@easytiger6570]

Would you be down tomorrow?

[@AndrewSternkern]

@@easytiger6570 (Looks around, evaluates life) Count me in.

[@letsRegulateSociopaths]

When he says it's extremely unlikely that makes me nervous when you know how unlikely the whole thing is to bring with...

[@bugwar5545]

Nervous? About something that you won't know if it happens, have no way of seeing it coming, and will be gone before you can tell.

[@archangelgabriel5316]

This is when the Maid from Spaceballs goes from Suck, to Blow.

[@obsideonyx7604]

I don't even want to know

[@archangelgabriel5316]

We've been jammed! Raspberry sir! That can only mean one man: Lonestar @logicalmusicman5081

[@samsmith2635]

We are past ludicrous speed, we have reached... Plaid

[@rawhidelamp]

Yogurt, I hate yogurt!!

[@HaxxorElite]

​@@obsideonyx7604I see your Schwartz is as big as mine

[@Temp0raryName]

This provides a solution to the Ferme paradox. The universe only exists (in a stable state) until a race develops scientists who create an oops-bubble, that destroys it (or radically alters it). To observe the universe you must either belong to a race unable to oops, be enlightened enough to not oops. Or be the first race capable of oops.

[@donaldgollihue5288]

Today, I learned that physicists' "funsies" are not the same as mine ... 😲

[@RobRutherford]

What do you expect from people who have strange quarks?

[@silviavalentine3812]

​@@RobRutherford lol 😂

[@robopenguin5501]

@@RobRutherfordthey are just quarky like that

[@leonardgibney2997]

It's OK, two scientists recently got the Nobel Peace Prize for publishing a paper saying the Universe isn't real anyway

[@Xabraxus]

Maybe forming such a true vaccuum is a built in mechanic on how the multiverse works and true vacuum bubbles happen all the time everywhere in our universe but we only perceive the universe where it doesn't. It would be a pretty good system to keep things in the universe from traveling faster than light too if you encountered those true vacuum bubbles in doing so.

[@Yamato4002]

“Until there is no matter, this won’t happen at all” maybe that’s how the universe resets every single time, when all suns disappeared, when all black holes are gone by the hawking radiation, when the universe is finally truly silent, this phenomenon happens and a bubble “which sounds like a big bang” expanding on the speed of light spreads on the now empty universe and who knows if that makes a whole new universe, maybe that indicates that the universe resets itself infinite times when that happens

[@spark5558]

Considering energy tends to spread out the opposite would happen especially considering the casimir effect The low energy bubble would be swallowed by the higher energy surrounding it

[@bpz8175]

This is a switch to a lower energy configuration, not the migration of packets of energy. For an example used in high school chemistry, you can take water, dissolve a salt in it, and boil most of it away. The solution is already long past the point where it should form crystals, but as long as there is no "seed" matter (preferred direction) for the crystal to form, it remains liquid water. The moment you stick a solid object into it, the entire solution turns into a solid. Vacuum decay is based on one or several quantum fields being given that preferred direction by the sudden existence of a point that has rolled into a lower-energy state. In fact, according to our current best knowledge, this has already happened with the higgs and inflaton fields. A vacuum decay would be a "crystallized" quantum field, expanding outwards at the speed of quantum field interactions (speed of light) while releasing an enormous amount of energy inside it to drag the high-energy field into a lower state.

[@Umarudon]

​@@bpz8175 wait, high energy inside it, you say? Could it be the fabled "White Hole" some theoretical physics have described?

[@bpz8175]

@@Umarudon I doubt it, because the bubble would need to keep expanding since the energy released is the difference between the false and true vacuum states.

[@ReyLangosta]

Thanks for reviving another of my favourite existential terrors.

[@Atlassian.]

The vast majority of the universe is moving away from us faster than light. So it could have already happened and we will never know it.

[@allagnstall]

We wouldn't know it anyway. If the energy transition front expanded outward at light speed, we'd literally be gone in a flash. In that sense, it doesn't matter to us where, when, or if it happens.

[@billsimpson604]

Unlikely to happen until the universe expands so much that the temperature nears absolute zero. That will take a while.

[@randallbrander8157]

Anton You might have something on your camera sensor. 11 minute mark on the left part of the screen close to your right shoulder and head there is probably dust on the camera sensor. Cheers!

[@cosmicraysshotsintothelight]

Tardigrade crystal feces pellet. :-)

It is there the entire time. 38% from the left, 34% from the top (or 415 and 655 pixels at 1080p resolution).

[@kinngrimm]

alien overmind: "how long does it take to purge this sim" universe AI: "+/- billions of years" alien overmind *sighs* thinking about buying better hardware

[@the80hdgaming]

Quantum diet Coke and Mentos state... Mass nucleation of vacuum bubbles...

[@dudeimbusy]

Just stop shaking the can for two seconds and flick the side.

[@vapormissile]

Tap the top with your fingernails ​@@dudeimbusy

[@anonymes2884]

Or the bottom. But make sure the can's into it first.

[@TheKrispyfort]

I'm in the middle of a food court! What on Earth possessed you to make the best joke about this that could ever?!! 🤣🤣🤣 I now know that you can snort out masticated doughnut from the nose

[@vapormissile]

@@TheKrispyfort "it's catastrophically delicious!"

[@darkridge]

Scientist: False vacuum decay may one day destroy the entire universe. Other scientist: Well, lets test to see if it's possible.

[@thomasgoodwin2648]

Let's be clear about this. We see empty space as not being truly empty, but this may in fact be an error of perception and only a localized phenomenon. How can we guarantee that in all infinite possible spacetime (and perhaps well beyond) there is no true ground state anywhere? Or is it perhaps the opposite, and we merely exist inside a noisy, messy, energetic mote floating in an even vaster nothing? Looks about the same from the inside when you're stuck inside the mote and can't even see the edge it. 🖖😎👍

[@ywtcc]

You can't detect a vacuum directly - you can only pass particles through it. Which makes it not a vacuum. A perfect vacuum isn't science, for this reason. You can never prove a true vacuum experimentally! Aside from that observation, also observe that the zero point energy predicted by quantum mechanics is in contradiction with cosmological void energies arrived at through astronomical measurements. (If you're looking for an experimental refutation of QM, it appears to be here at ultra low energies. Personally, I expect some revision at these energies.)

[@John-Perry]

He literally explains in this video that we couldn’t know whether a ground state has been achieved at some point somewhere in the universe because the “bubble” would radiate outwards at the speed of light. As far as the ground state already being achieved, it could be possible that said “quantum foam” is proof of us existing in a false vacuum state

[@thomasgoodwin2648]

@@John-Perry I feel you miss my point, which is that the foam itself (which we are trapped inside), may be a local phenomenon and not pervasive throughout existence. Think of it this way... If you were born in a giant bowl of salad, when you examine your surroundings you might conclude that the salad dressing is all pervasive despite not being able to see out of the bowl. While the maths behind a "lettuce and tomato chunks accrete from the salad dressing field" universe might make some predictions that are 'close enough to prove' the existence of the "dressing field", it doesn't mean the field must exist outside the bowl, or in fact even has any real meaning inside the bowl either, just that the maths are similar enough to look right. The fact that our perceptions are so limited prevent us from examining the existential framework in which ANY universe is even possible, let alone this specific one. Too much faith in quick math correlations can easily lead to a false understanding of the actual causation.

[@bugwar5545]

Or better yet, you are just a fever dream, and I will awaken at any moment. Makes me feel a lot better about you.

[@thomasgoodwin2648]

@@bugwar5545 Lol! Pity you're not that lucky!

[@fostermoody]

Physicists: we came up with this mathematical possibility that could potentially delete the universe. Engineers: cool, i wanna try to make one. Geologists: guys, no! The universe is where i keep my rock collection!

[@istealpopularnamesforlikes3340]

Finally, a W for humanity

[@Natogoon]

Cringe. Self-destructive thought is for edgy kids. The human spirit will prevail.

[@IiiiIiiIllIl]

​@@Natogoonyour profile pic is of mao. And you call him edgy? Pathetically hypocritical.

[@betabenja]

and a Z!

[@walterwalter-ql1np]

@@Natogoon I want to see the human spirit VS one of these bubbles

[@bb5979]

If there is no other life in the universe humanity is the most interesting thing in the universe.

[@HecticSG]

One of the few science-based channels that actually gets me HYPED to hear news about ANYTHING, really. Thank you, Mr. Anton, for continuing to give us great news and information. 🖤🖤

[@jamescanjuggle]

Saw this on Sabine Hossenfelders channel yesterday and the Dimensional collapse weapon from the 3 body problem series keeps coming to mind. Imagining entities so advanced they made a weapon to cause this false vacuum, or in the books collapsing 4d into 3d and lower. Terrifying. Even more terrifying that the alien causing it is just pushing buttons and being harrased by middle management 😆

[@vencdee]

That's the possible cause why aliens don't talk with us, avoid serious contacts, but doesn't care about occasional sightings. Any serious contact could pose a risk of leaking substantial knowledge about new physics and humanity creating dangerous new weapons based on such knowledge . Therefore we are doomed to be ignored by more developed civilizations than us (ZOO phenomenon).

[@robabramovitz5192]

Thanks for another mind-blower. A self regulating reset button. The universe keeps expanding until the gravity is so weak that a bubble can exist and grow. This creates a new universe with a lower vacuum energy. And, possibly stars and planets form, and maybe even life.

[@lerpmmo]

imagine accidentally breaking the universe in a lab

[@ILLUMINATED-1]

Our sims are getting pretty good. Wonder when our experiments will be simulated in them, and one guy accidentally deletes the galaxy and is just like… glad i tested first lol

[@catpoke9557]

Vacuum decay wouldn't destroy the universe. It would only destroy a small part of it. It travels at the speed of light. Not nearly fast enough to destroy the universe, unless it breaks out in every little bit of the universe. Which if it did, we definitely would have experienced it by now. Which to be fair we might have, because if we are inside one of these bubbles we probably wouldn't have any way of knowing. But if that's the case, it would also mean that vacuum decay can't destroy the universe, or at least, it can't destroy OUR version of the universe.

[@bugwar5545]

Imagine never knowing that you did.

[@chrisb2942]

It's also called the "turn the power button off on the piece that runs our universe simulation" theory

[@okman9684]

"The more i learn about fundamental properties of the world the more i feel like Its all for nothing" - did you thought it was some famous quote? Nah, move on

[@saumyacow4435]

The quantum vacuum is a state where we haven't a clue so random theories pop in and out of existence.

[@timmiller2476]

Answer me this sir, if the false vacuum decay and the inflation field expansion are similar, why do physicists say that the inflationary expansion happened faster than c? When we know that a false vacuum would propagate outward at c.

[@John-Perry]

Because space isn’t a thing per se, it’s the medium in which things exist. So because space isn’t a thing, there’s no information or energy being transmitted when it expands, it’s literally just nothing expanding into whatever it’s expanding into (if there’s even anything that it’s expanding into). However, a false vacuum would propagate at c, because it is a transmission of information. The vacuum is dropping into a ground state, by which it transmits the information that there’s a new ground state being achieved causing a chain reaction that can only propagate at the speed that information can travel.

[@axle.student]

Yeah, I grapple with these paradoxes as well. The answers may appear to cover the whole speed of light and inflation problem but it appears to create a multitude of other paradoxes beyond the process of the time/inflation issue. > I worked out a way around this paradox just recently, but I am about as insane as Hawking lol

[@axle.student]

P.S. "When we know that a false vacuum would propagate outward at c." is that paraphrasing from what Anton said in the video, or do you see some other concept that would limit this propagation to 'c'? I am looking for a comparison between time and 'c' in the void. Like a pseudo measurement of distance in the void and a pseudo measurement (speed) of time in the void (Yes, I get told that time does not exist) but the void also does not exist, yet physicists revel in speculation of the void but when it comes to time it is like you have mentioned some taboo subject. lol

[@andrewpatton5114]

Actually, the false vacuum decay is the transition from the inflationary state to the present state. The inflationary state is an intense dark energy field, which, just as the present dark energy-dominated universe does, causes exponential expansion of the universe. Since it was much more powerful, though, it had a doubling time of billions of Planck times instead of billions of years.

[@cinemaipswich4636]

Once Measurement is no longer possible, namely the plank units, then existence no longer exists. The devices that measure the Universe would need greater and greater scale. At the end of time, the expanse is unable to be measured, then there is no longer a Universe.

[@toughenupfluffy7294]

"Oh my god! What is that?" "It looks like a quantum bubb-"

[@u.v.s.5583]

Task "run the Universe" failed successfully.

[@axle.student]

@@u.v.s.5583 lol Don't you just hate inescapable while loops... break;

[@bugwar5545]

You really don't understand the concept of moving at the speed of light, do you?

[@axle.student]

@@bugwar5545 Does anyone "Actually" understand the concept of moving at the speed of light? Considering the only example we really have is a photon and we still don't have a clue how that works.

[@bugwar5545]

@@axle.student Yes. Yes I do.

[@PhysicsNative]

The Casimir plate experiments are always mis-reported. The forces are due to the van der Waals force, not energy of the vacuum. The ferromagnetic superfluid experiment is simply showing the transition from an excited state to the real ground state of the system.

[@samiirai]

I see this as more evidence that we are living in a black hole. If these things can only exist between two holes colliding, maybe that triggers the event inside of the black hole merging together? New universes are created inside of universes an so on. Still doesn't explain were it started, but it's interesting to visualize how it might progress by creating pockets in our space containing another universe. This universe also creates it owns pockets and it just goes on and on. For every possible state there will be a pocket somewhere inside of a pocket containing that state. Every possible thing that can happen, probably happens in several pockets of space just for good measure. Imagine if you could step outside of space and observe all these pockets, would look something like that old windows98 pipe screensaver..

[@axle.student]

Personally I don't see much difference between our universe and a black hole. But then I see black holes as something quite different to their common representation.

[@catpoke9557]

@@axle.student What do you see black holes as?

[@axle.student]

@@catpoke9557 I'll offer a short quote from a reply to someone else making a comment about magnetism, but no actual magnetism involved here. P.S. I am not a physicist, so this is just s thought experiment. > I speculated a torus where the centre is essentially closed, much like a dipole bar magnet flux lines. In this scenario the 4D space-time flows in a similar way between expansion (outer), and contraction (inner). > I then took this next level and speculated no difference between the infinite centre (the singularity) and the spherical like shell (event horizon). There is mathematical speculation with space and time swapping places when crossing the event horizon, so in some sense something crossing the event horizon immediately emerges from the centre(inside of the event horizon) and moves toward the outer shell ( the singularity). The 2 perspectives of the black hole as a 3D spherical entity: From outside the singularity is at the centre and the event horizon is at the outer shell. From inside "stuff" emerges from the centre and expands outwards into what appears as infinite space with the outer edge being the singularity. From here we have to add the time dimension to the 3D paradox above. Time and speed of light etc being as quirky as it is it become plausible for the spheres center and shell to switch places (or maybe switch states between space and time). > I have recently stopped using the word "Space" when I do these thought experiments and now use "Void". I see Void-Time (or my preference Time->Void) as more fundamental than when the void is filled with stuff to become space. When you remove all of the emergent stuff (energy, mass, particles etc.) from the universe all that is left is the concept of time and the void; both of which have "no physical properties", but do still have properties. I guess a little like saying that zero has no physical properties, but is still measurable or capable of being defined. This leads into a universe from nothing where I give primacy to time rather than the void. In essence everything starting with the void emerges out of time. It's like a polar opposite the "Hartle-Hawking State". > It's all a bit abstract :)

[@kylebroussard5952]

*I feel like if you zoomed out, our entire universe is like an atom somewhere, just vibrating for no reason, meaning nothing*

[@Atrocitus-k2j]

Also this was the terminal event of the first Stephen Baxter book I read, which got me completely hooked on hard sci-fi - Manifold: Time

[@Democritus8181]

Great book; I've read all of his books thus far.

[@user-Aaron-]

Dang, did you just spoil the climax of the first book of the series you just recommended?

[@Atrocitus-k2j]

@@user-Aaron- not remotely; the series consists of orthoquels, not sequels (author’s own term - parallel realities but with similar characters), and the vacuum collapse event, while climactic, is really just the backdrop.

[@user-Aaron-]

@@Atrocitus-k2j Cool, good to know! Will check it out :)

[@RohitPatel-x1q]

From "god doesn't play dice" comes the revised "god doesn't play Russian roulette".

[@andrewpatton5114]

When God brings an end to the present universe and brings forth the New Heavens and the New Earth, it won't be an accident. He has appointed a Day known only to Him when He will judge the world and all things done in it, reveal all things, and purge the universe by fire.

[@liquidpatriot4480]

If this bubble of expanding destruction moves at the speed of light we can only hope it happens somewhere in the universe over our cosmic horizon moving away from us faster than light.😅

[@oberonpanopticon]

Unless the bubble gets carried along with the expansion of the universe. It is space that’s changing, after all.

[@liquidpatriot4480]

@@oberonpanopticon or if it happens randomly in different regions of the entire universe, then we might not escape. But one way or another everything must end.

[@ProbablyLying]

How cold can we get stuff in experiments??

[@GeraldBlack1]

Right next to 0 Kelvin with lasers.

[@oberonpanopticon]

38 picokelvin thus far

[@ProbablyLying]

@@GeraldBlack1 so does 0 kelvin = lowest energy state in the universe?

[@silviavalentine3812]

​@@ProbablyLying idk too much relating to vacuum energy but going off of the uncertainty principle, I'm guessing that it would just be closer to 0k. Hopefully someone can give more detail and possibly correct me.

[@GeraldBlack1]

@@ProbablyLying Its the temperature where all motion and heat in matter stops which is impossible to reach. The lowest energy state would still have energy.

[@chrisfrerichs2321]

Thanks!

[@DasYorgo4000]

I once had a bowel movement so massive it was close to exceeding the Chandrasekhar limit and i thought it would collapse into a black hole.

[@Kedvespatikus]

Well, Chuck Norris returned from the singularity of a black hole. Twice.

[@Syncrotron9001]

@@Kedvespatikus Thats not true. Norris didn't escape the black hole. The black hole escaped Chuck Norris.

[@DasYorgo4000]

This is why everybody should get more fibre in their diet and worry less about false vacuum cleaner decay.

[@marcse7en]

It collapsed into a sh*t hole! 💩

[@cosmicraysshotsintothelight]

Elvis tried that and did not survive. He shat the black out though, and all of his turds were white after that. Talk about chirality...

[@Dziki_z_Lasu]

99,999999...% of universes vanished, physicists in that couple ones that survived: I told you nothing will happen, now let's repeat that until statistical significance for the paper is achieved 😂

[@caloricphlogistonandthelum4008]

Seriously, anton, you think it's a good idea to play about with vacuum decay?

[@Khannea]

The universe is clearly accelerating in a direction we cant see. What you see aroumd you, the CMBR is the fading afterglow of stuff from a 'previous' universe fading away. We are all moving 'apart' faster and faster. However, inside a black hole every direction around us points to a certain point in the future, and that is our final destination. The universe has an outcome and that end point is a Singularity, about 22 billion years away. That's the end. We will all suddenly 'spaghettify' in all directions and after that our photons will fizzle out into a point of absolute density. Poof, nothing.

[@davidsault9698]

If the Universe just came into existence because of a quantum fluctuation, it must be explained where the possibility came from. What made the possibility. What made the QM that made it a possibility.

[@808bigisland]

No gods

[@IncoGnito-ji5du]

Yeah i still find our current propositions rather lacking. "Sooo basically there was nothing, and then because it was possible, there was something, aaaand here we are"

[@IncoGnito-ji5du]

​@@808bigislandexcept for Kratos.

[@Haegemon]

@@IncoGnito-ji5du We'll never have that answer because if goes beyond of our present and future capacity. We don't know the nature or the purpose of the Universe. In this point is where believers of a superior being and unbilievers collide. Ones say it's a master plan of a superior being, the others say it's just casual physics...but if so, then everything would be pointless.

[@blokin5039]

We will know one day.

[@barryon8706]

"One day you're just walking your dog, and then suddenly everything is gone." I never knew walking my dog was so dangerous.

[@SubduedRadical]

Researchers: "So, a zero energy bubble forming would pretty much end the universe." People: "Oh wow, that sounds terrifying!" Researchers: "Yup. So we're making one. Oh look, it's spreading more and more..." People: "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?"

[@MiccaPhone]

You cannot "look and see it spreading. It is spreading at the speed of light. Watch the video again.

[@SubduedRadical]

@@MiccaPhone It...was a joke.

[@dennisbohner6876]

Knowing we are liable to be reduced to naught upon a snap is comic book territory. The underlying reality that we float on makes a tenuous construct for us.

[@krismeaney2841]

How does the universe "vanish" instantly if this zero energy bubble spreads out at the speed of light? In that case and our current size of the universe, it would take many billions of years to spread across the entire universe right? I mean with the expansion of the universe traveling faster than the speed of light, I dont see how this bubble could ever spread out across the entire universe. So instantly, doesn't make sense to me.

[@anonymes2884]

He may have meant we'd _perceive_ it as happening instantly (because it's happening at the speed of light we literally won't see it coming).

[@user-Aaron-]

Yeah, it happens instantaneously from the point of the observer.

[@williamnicholson8133]

Who said the zero time bubble would be limited to the speed of light?

[@krom9897]

The universe isn’t expanding faster than the speed of light. If it were you wouldn’t see anything.

[@John-Perry]

@@krom9897The universe ABSOLUTELY is expanding faster than the speed of light. However, it expands exponentially faster as the distance from the observer increases. The reason that there is an “observable universe” is because of the faster than light expansion of space, stretching the space between us and very far galaxies to the point that the photons from said galaxies are no longer able to overcome the expansion. We also observe this FTL expansion as red shift, because the wavelength of photons and other radiation from distant bodies are stretched as they travel towards us. The caveat that keeps the expansion of space from breaking physics is that space is not an object, but instead is the medium that objects exist within, literally “nothing” can travel faster than light. If the expansion was not FTL we would observe ultradistant objects in “true color” so to speak, because there wouldn’t be a mechanism by which the wavelength of EM radiation could be stretched, and we would be able to see the entire universe, where the edges would appear as a completely opaque wall in every direction, and not just an “observable” bubble. This opaque edge, the fingerprint of the time following the big bang before the quark-gluon plasma that made up the primordial universe cooled and expanded enough to become transparent to light, is now observed as microwave radiation, known as the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation, because of the FTL expansion of space as well, the high energy radiation of the primordial universe being stretched millions of times to the size of microwaves that we observe to this day from every direction we observe.

[@sigmundfreud7903]

Imagine don’t know what any of this means, but it sounds awesome.

[@pebbleoverpond]

Can vacuum osmosis of spacetime be part of the dark energy equation?

[@anabang1251]

what

[@axle.student]

NO. But maybe osmosis of time-void.

[@felhomaly]

This gives a horroristic meaning of "horror vacui" postulated by Aristotle.

[@untouchable360x]

The universe will end once some trips over the wire.

[@starfallmusicaus]

Anton: "there's a non zero chance existence might blink itself out of existing". Me: "Come on man I just woke up don't existential crisis me this early in the morning" 😂

[@devins7457]

Horrors beyond my comprehension. Now I understand. It's possible to be more dead than dead, apparently. Yay, anxiety.

[@anonymes2884]

IF ( big 'if' :) it happened, it'd happen at the speed of light so you _literally_ wouldn't see it coming. No point worrying about something you can't ever even know happened.

[@devins7457]

@anonymes2884 Perhapse, there exists life after death... surely there won't be if /everything/ is gone.

[@davidboyle1902]

You can actually see true vacuums at work in the form of politicians refusing to move ahead on topics they want because it would eliminate a point of contention in the future.

[@kittonsmitton]

The Quantum fluctuation that began the universe was the word God spoke the universe into existence. The Bible speaks of the BigBang that took thousands of years for science to discover.

[@kryts27]

Well explained as usual, thanks Anton. Endlessly fascinating is vacuum energy. Remember, all our knowledge of the universe is relatively new, despite telescopes being invented 400 years ago. A century ago, black holes were still theoretical for example.

[@glyngibbs9489]

The universe continues until a species learns to do this experiment and then it starts again.

[@antrikshluthra6599]

Jon Stewart was right. One day, the last words of humanity will be from a scientist in a lab saying, "huh! that worked!!!"

[@Xsiondu]

Oh hell no! This is one of those "just because you can doesn't mean you should". Scenarios.

[@GeoffsCornerOffice]

This is the one thing I'm concerned about scientists doing experiments with

[@vereor66]

The universe could completely end "for no reason whatsoever" You made it a whole 20 seconds before you said smth dumb this time, good work

[@sergioreyes298]

Dr. Evil: "Pay me 100 trillion dollars or I end the universe!"

[@stevenkarnisky411]

The universe cannot just flash out of existence, if, as Anton suggests, the vacuum decay bubble expands at the speed of light! From our perspective it would be instantaneous. Light would strike the earth as normal, until it stopped coming to us and goodbye. But to an observer watching from outside the universe, the decay bubble would take billions of years to swallow everything. Am I incorrect? Thank you, Anton.

[@catpoke9557]

In fact, the decay bubble would NEVER swallow everything due to the expansion of the universe.

[@linguine490]

If the big bang was a false vacuum, couldn't that mean we're already in the real vacuum state?

[@liquid_shadow8690]

That’s probably the format button on this cosmic “simulation”.

[@salec7592]

6:18 @whatdamath: Only when camera footage is mixed into the scene, there is an annoying speck (it looks like a particle of cigarette ash) in the left half of the screen, at length about width of the face and a bit more to the left of you. I thought I had a dirt on my monitor, but it goes away when there is only the background video in the scene and reappears when we are seeing you again. Check your optics. Or perhaps your green screen - it may have an non-homogeneity of different shade or color. On the topic, is there perhaps a process which dynamically brings universe back into false vacuum state? I mean, if there is decay, energy is emitted, likely in form of some particle, and this particle might as well decay back into virtual particles. Maybe the very "bubbling" of the quantum foam is this dance between true and false vacuum at localized scale?

[@spacelemur7955]

Vonnegut was right! It's Ice Nine!

[@MCsCreations]

- But WHY would you do a risky experiment like that??? - Because why the heck not.

[@Wstarlights]

'Theoretical' only in comparitive relation to "the vacuum catastrophe" - meaning modern cosmology knows nothing definitive about the vacuum.

[@DrGrrr-ho7sb]

If you needed a reason to be glad that the universe is expanding and the speed of light is finite here it is. If there’s a non zero chance that this can happen and the universe is roughly infinite it’s fairly likely that this has happened before, but it happened so far away that it hasnt and will never reach the observable universe.

[@aurinator]

This honestly sounds like we're potentially teasing what may have caused the Big Bang.

[@brendanh8193]

Is it possible to control the size of these bubbles, or even reverse them? Can these provide propulsion?

[@anthonyfamularo8875]

Anton, yours was the first explanation of the Casimir Effect that made me think, "OH! I get it now!" Thanks! :)

[@fenixgirl9]

it is a lot to wrap ones head around. yet you did a good job laying it out so it is somewhat comprehendable especially with the illustrations.

[@ChancySanah]

Well the millions of people that have run the "Socks in a dryer" experiment knows things can suddenly cease to exist. 6 socks enter 5 socks leave. *nods*

[@dragonhawkeclouse2264]

in this case, anti-gravity might be a VERY BAD thing

[@acev337]

Physical and Quantum are not so far apart. The physical example of the Casimir plates are that you can stick together two super-smooth metal faces, and yet still be able to pull them apart. Another example of this effect is magnetism, where there is an inward pressure until a point beyond which there is an outward pressure.

[@larkljc]

Thanks Anton……my only consolation is knowing that you will go with us!! They need to stop messing with reality like this. It’s dangerous

[@paulteti]

Oh yeah! Vacuum metastability disaster my favorite. Maybe someday we'll create a weapon that can cause this event. I wouldn't doubt that if we could do it that we wouldn't do it.

[@ILLUMINATED-1]

Interesting things in our universe seem to happen on the precipice between creation and destruction. Would make sense we also live in a similar precarious situation.

[@IKFKSwitch]

That's the funniest theory I've ever heard. Not because of its unlikliness, but because of its feasibility.

[@BenjaminSpencer-m1k]

When you started first thing I thought about is ice, in dont know if it always needs a nucliation point and some times just a little kenitc energy can cause the state to change. Is there any idea what amount of energy state change is survivable?

[@dvgsun]

Anton just blew my mind with all these false vacuum decay explanations