False Vacuum Decay

http://arxiv.org/abs/0708.3844
Simulation by Joel Thorarinson From the paper "Bubbling the False Vacuum Away" published in Physical Review D at http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRD/v77/e023513
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_vacuum
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~jthorarinson/

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Lattice
• simulations
• false
• vacuum
• decay
• phase
• transition
• oscillons
• scalar
• condensate
• old
• inflation

[wunglaub]

It's been awhile since I've studied the effects of Witten's bubbles on unstable spaces. Pretty neat simulation! What program do you typically use for displaying such calculations?

[maltrizek]

@wunglaub C++ calculations, a modified version of FermiQCD, then output of numeric lattices and rendering in opendx. Then you can splice the the rendered frame in Quicktime Pro or any photo to video rendering program.

[pruje]

I'm not a scientist but I am facinated by stuff like this. When I first read about this I got a tingle down my spine...it is a really terrifying thought.

But then I came to the same conclusion as

PsychoJosh...the universe is very big, and billions of years old, with a lot of extreme and weird stuff floating around and crashing into other weird and extreme stuff. If it hasn't happened so far, I doubt it can happen at all.

[maltrizek]

Pruje, that is actually a very good observation on your part, strongly energetic interactions would certainly catalyze a transition. The observation that most commenters missed is that these theories are currently applied to much more down to earth applications, such as phase transitions which can be created in a lab, such a superconductivity and magnetic transitions in exotic materials (condensed matter for example).

[snowman555555]

The vacuum decay theory is only a weird implication of the quantum physics theory. We know today that the quantum theory is only an approximation of our universe and is not able to fully describe it. Its application sometimes results in unsolvable and illogical paradoxes. The vacuum decay theory is one of these phenomena. It is expected that new quantum gravity theory (M-theory perhaps?) will solve these paradoxes and there'll be no room for the vacuum decay theory.

[maltrizek]

Vacuum decay is actually as common as your beer freezing instantly when you put it carefully in the freezer and then bump it, phase transitions, both quantum and classical happen all the time. There are both mundane and exotic applications of these phase transitions theories, the mundane ones are most certainly observable.

[Thomasfyren2]

Thus far we cannot know if we do actually live in a false vacuum. It is a possibility which scientists are definately going to explore.

Is a decay going to happen in our lifetime? No.

Some scientists say that it is a possibilty, but they say that no matter how slim the chance is. As a scientist if it is possible for you to win the grand price in 10 different kinds of lottery every week for the next 20 years, and he will say yes.

The possibility exists, but is it going to happen? No.

[Thomasfyren2]

And recently, astronomers have witnessed 2 supermassive black holes fusing together in a collision between 2 galaxies. The impact created a gravitational wave of such power, that this new hole was kicked out of the new galaxy. If we try imagining how much energy there was involved in this process, we would probably just become dizzy. Yet it was still not enough to spark a metastability event.

[Aqquila89]

What the hell is the point of a theory like that? To my understanding it's "at any moment, absolutely everything could be completely destroyed forever, and there's nothing we can do about it". Thanks, that's fucking useful.

[antred11]

I may take some flak for this comment, but honestly I kind of feel that who ever came up with all these extremely weird quantum related theories must have been smoking some really powerful stuff.

[CreativeVisionary92]

Imagine if our universe is made out of false vacuum! We're screwed without warning...

[Mrcryptidsarereal]

@Sunoco ok so i get something changes on a cosmic scale. what happens to the universe, for example, gravity won't exist or dna is made of plutonium or something?

[infinitenight2093]

what? I don't understand why everyone is freaking out. I was under the impression that we were living in a true vacuum. If I'm not mistaken, the birth of the universe took place such that there was an initial high energy state in which the four forces became separated. As well during this time, the universe underwent inflation (IMO chaotic infl.) and rapidly expanded. However, during the splitting of the forces I though THAT was when the universe was a false vacuum. FVD already took place!...?

[xCmOn3yx777]

scary shit, thankfully its very unlikely to ever happen but still scary

[Sunoco]

@Mrcryptidsarereal It's hard to explain, but imagine the universe is a bottle of beer in the freezer. If you nudge it just a tiny, tiny bit, nothing much happens. If you bump it a little too hard however, the whole thing instantly freezes. It's a similar concept, except the bottle of beer is our entire universe.

[Mrcryptidsarereal]

can somebody put this in words a simple man can understand?