Elizabeth Superfin, Period 6, 12/8/23

 Elizabeth Superfin

Period 6, 12/8/23

Modern Mythology 2024

Research Paper: It’ll Be the End of the World as Modern Science Knows It, And We Feel Fine.

We have spent many weeks discussing beginnings. Be it through the Greek tale of an Earth birthed from Chaos and Darkness or the Cherokee story of an island created by Water Beetle and shaped by Buzzard, we have learned all about the ways that cultures around the world describe an origin that they were not there to witness. Likewise, we have also learned about the Big Bang from Dr.Davis, who visited our classroom on November 2nd to teach about modern science and its take on the start of the universe. It was interesting to compare his lesson to the myths that we learned about, and to see the ways that the people of old were (possibly) both right and wrong about the start of it all. Of course, most beginnings lead to endings– our discussions of origins then gave way to Mr.Misciagna’s seminar on the Biblical version of the end of our universe, and the belief that this conclusion will then lead to a new beginning. However, we did not parallel our own beginnings by discussing modern science’s take on the end– and so, here are four current theories by scientists as to how the universe will die.

1. Heat Death

One of the most well known theories as to how our world will end is that it will conclude via “heat death.” Interestingly, this name implies the opposite of what the theory in question suggests may occur (the “Big Freeze '' is another, arguably more descriptive name, though less commonly used).  This theory states that due to its continued expansion, the universe will eventually become too cold to sustain both life and creation itself. This is because as the universe expands, entropy (the “randomness of the universe,” necessary for energy and heat) is distributed across a larger and larger area. Eventually, entropy may be so thinly distributed that heat will never be created– and life, at least as we know it, will be unable to exist. Additionally, as the galaxies spread further and further, new stars will stop being created because there will be no interactions and no new gasses from which they can form. The last stars will decay to black holes, which will themselves decay to disordered energy. In trillions of years, once everything is disordered energy, maximum entropy (thermodynamic equilibrium) will be reached and no more disorder will be able to happen, which will end creation itself. Depressing!

2. The “Big Rip”

You may have heard of dark energy– the mysterious force propelling the universe’s continued expansion, and, in fact, propelling it to expand faster than it did at the universe’s beginning. This force, assuming it remains constant, is a major contributing factor to the heat death theory. However, if it isn’t constant, if this mysterious dark energy is actually growing stronger (as some scientists theorize) then there is another end that may reach us far earlier. This is because the force of dark energy can be thought of as contributing to the universe’s stretchiness. If “phantom” dark energy (that increasingly powerful dark energy) exists, it may eventually stretch the universe so far that rather than continue to stretch, it tears itself apart. Scary! Fortunately, this theory is considered less likely than the previous one, as the idea of ever-strengthening dark energy breaks what we (currently) know about how energy moves through the cosmos.

3. Vacuum Decay

The “Higgs field” is what currently separates the electromagnetic force (intertwined force of electricity & magnetism) from the weak force (responsible for the interactions between protons, neutrons, and electrons) in our universe. Early on in the universe’s beginning, these forces used to be one, and the Higgs is what now prevents them from merging once more. Its existence was confirmed with the discovery of the Higgs boson (the particle associated with this field) at CERN in 2012. However, this separation may eventually cause our doom. According to quantum physics, more massive = more unstable. When measuring the Higgs field, physicists have discovered that its mass puts it somewhere between stable and a little unstable. This means that there is a slim, but possible chance that something may just… go wrong with this barrier between forces, and cause it to change. This change may be inconsequential– or it can be as damning as the change that led to the force separation in the first place. If that change in the Higgs field leads to a change in the vacuum that our current universe exists in, then our current vacuum will then become a “false vacuum.” A chain reaction may occur where a bubble of the new, “true” vacuum expands outwards at the speed of light from the point where the disturbance first occurred. If you touch this new vacuum, you might be incinerated, or you might turn into a black hole. The very laws of physics in this new vacuum may even be different. Maybe this bubble will begin in a part of the universe so far away from us that it will take billions of years to reach us– or it could begin right next to our solar system, and we may blink out of existence before we know it. Either way, the universe as we know it may end, all due to an unlucky disturbance in the Higgs field. Fortunately, according to our current standard particle model, this is very unlikely to happen, at least within the next 10100- 10500 years. Still– frightening!

4. The “Big Bounce”

Some people question the Big Bang for one reason: how could something come from nothing? What existed before the beginning that created the conditions for the beginning? Others question it for another reason– how is it possible that the Big Bang, such an explosive, random, turbulent event, created a universe that is so… orderly? Mass and energy are pretty evenly distributed in our universe, after all. One way to combat this doubt is to blame multiverse theory, saying that this original, random event just so happened to happen and then create an orderly universe. But, what are the chances of that? All of these doubts are linked to this last theory, known as the “Big Bounce.” Cyclical cosmologists (proponents of this theory) argue that perhaps, before our universe, there was another– and that after our universe ends, yet another will follow. They (generally) say that instead of the Big Bang model, where our universe began and then will inflate until oblivion, perhaps the universe is instead continuously expanding and contracting. Maybe it began from a singularity, and will expand until the universe becomes disorderly (remember the “disordered energy” from the heat death theory?) and then will contract again, restoring order. It may contract back into a singularity, which will then create a new universe and the cycle will continue. Interestingly enough, this is most similar to the Biblical end of the universe that Mr.Misciagna discussed in class– a universe formed from the ashes of another. The question is– does this prove the Biblical tale, or was this theory inspired by it instead? As of right now, it is hard to know. Still– it’s fascinating to think about!

We still don’t know exactly how the universe will end. As theories get discredited– such as the “Big Crunch” theory of the universe collapsing in on itself, which was disproved by the discovery that the universe is expanding at an increasing rate– other theories are created. And as other theories are created, new questions and discoveries arise, and fuel the cycle once more. No matter how the universe ends, though, we will likely not be around to witness it. As ancient cultures once did, we speculate on events that we will not witness, all for the sake of understanding the world around us– to me, that doesn’t just reveal something about theoretical physics, but about humanity itself. Its curiosity. Its perseverance. Its continuity through time. Personally, I’m not worried. Maybe the end of the universe will be cold, depressing, and dark. Maybe the world will rip into pieces because of phantom dark energy, or be snapped into oblivion due to an unlucky disturbance. Possibly, it won’t end at all, and will just bounce back and begin anew. But, as the pancake-thieving, emperor-befriending, unintentionally wise Lift from Brandon Sanderson’s Edgedancer once said– “The world ends tomorrow, but the day after that, people are going to ask what’s for breakfast.” 

Sources:

“The Big Bounce: Why Our Universe Might Be Eternal.” Big Think, 19 Apr. 2022, bigthink.com/hard-science/big-bounce-theory/.

Cain, Fraser. “What Is the Big Rip?” Universe Today, 14 Mar. 2017, www.universetoday.com/107316/what-is-the-big-rip/.

CERN. “The Higgs Boson.” CERN, home.cern/science/physics/higgs-boson. Accessed 16 Dec. 2023.

“Forces.” NASA, NASA, 26 Oct. 2022, universe.nasa.gov/universe/forces/.

Lavender, Gemma. “What Is Heat Death?: Space Facts – Astronomy, the Solar System & Outer Space: All about Space Magazine.” Space Facts Astronomy the Solar System Outer Space All About Space Magazine, 11 Oct. 2018, www.spaceanswers.com/deep-space/what-is-heat-death/.

Strogatz, Steven. “How Will the Universe End?” Quanta Magazine, 22 Feb. 2023, www.quantamagazine.org/how-will-the-universe-end-20230222/.

Sutter, Paul. “Here’s How the Universe Could End in a ‘False Vacuum Decay.’” Space.Com, Space, 8 Dec. 2021, www.space.com/universe-end-false-vacuum-decay.

Villanueva, John Carl. “The Big Crunch: The End of Our Universe?” Universe Today, 2 Mar. 2020, www.universetoday.com/37018/big-crunch/.