ÿþ<html> <body> <h1>Extremely simple discussion on  Vacuum Decay </h1> Version : 0.4  in development<br> Status : Very speculative <br> Date : 17/04/2010<br> By : Albert van der Sel<br> Type of doc : just an attempt to decribe the subject in a few simple words.<br> Remark : You should be very sceptical about the content.<br> <hr/> <br> You might remember that before the first tests of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at Cern (Geneva),<br> took place, a few scientists protested fiercely, and even started a court case in order<br> to prevent the scheduled high energy experiments.<br> Their fear mainly seemed to revolve around "mini black hole" creation, that might end our world.<br> <br> You may have laughed about it at that time, but there indeed is a serious matter to be concerned with,<br> and that is the possibility of "Vacuum Decay".<br> Now, that phenomenon is still likely to be many orders of Energy away from what the LHC can reach,<br> but the subject is interresting enough to spend a few words on it.<br> <br> The "Vacuum" might be able to "exist" in several "states". And that sentence really describes the<br> heart of the problem. <br> One should realize here, that if the Vacuum would change "state", it would change all properties<br> of any physical system.<br> The idea of Vacuum States is really a quite accepted idea among many physicists.<br> <br> To add more "weight" to the upper statements: did you know that a theory like "The Inflationary Universe" that preceded<br> the Big Bang, is based (among many other things) on the assumption that the Vacuum shifted from state?<br> <p> <table border="0" width="100%" cellpadding="10"> <tr> <td width="20%" valign="top"> <img src="fig10.jpg"> </td> <td width="50%" valign="top"> The basic idea is, that we are living in a socalled "false vacuum", with a higher Energy potential,<br> than the true ground state of the "true vacuum".<br> This is "somewhat" illustrated in the figure on the left.<br> Here, the False Vacuum we (and all other physical systems) live in, is represented by "I",<br> while the true vacuum is represented by "II".<br> <br> If we indeed would exists in a false vacuum, it would contribute to the fact that<br> Zero Point Energy (ZPE) phenomena, could be explained quite well.<br> <br> The false vacuum "state" could have originated during the Big Bang, where the "phase transition"<br> did not completed.<br> This is not unlike certain observations you can make here on earth. With some liquids and gasses,<br> given certain boundary conditions (like pressure and temperature), a liquid <I>should have been</I><br> a gas already, but the boundary conditions prevents it from being so.<br> </td> </tr> </table> </p> The point is, that a phase transition can start out at a localized region, and that will "ignite"<br> (so to speak) the rest. It resembles the effect as if you pierced a hole into a cilinder with liquid gas<br> under high pressure.<br> <br> Could a high energy experiment (like with a particle accelerator), in principle, trigger such an event?<br> <br> We must realize ourselves here, that in the Universe, very high energy events take place,<br> that makes our particle accelerators, in comparison, very little "dwarfs".<br> So, for the time being, I would say that there is nothing to worry about.<br> <br> But who can be exactly sure...? Right: Nobody knows exactly where the limits are.<br> <br> Facinating, isn't it? Explore my site, or the net, for more information.<br> <br> <I><B>Just a few other remarks:</I></B><br> <br> 1. Would't it be ironic (and unlikely) that the insignificant Human race (on a cosmological scale), would be able<br> to "destroy" the Universe as we know it? Just by using a large accelerator or other device?<br> Indeed, that would be very remarkable! In fact, it's very unlikely.<br> You might interpreted that as an indication, that either there are no Vacuum States,<br> or it's really, <B>really</B> close to impossible to trigger the Vacuum Decay.<br> <br> 2. If the Vacuum Decay started "somewhere" in the Universe, this "bubble" would<br> expand at lightspeed.<br> So, at various distant "places" in the Universe, it might already have started, without us knowing about it.<br> <br> 3. It's not impossible that multiple "vacuum states" exists, instead of just "false" and "true".<br> There could be a whole range of discrete states !<br> Some scientists even suspect that there could be <I>so many</I> states, that they even compare it to the "weather".<br> This then could imply the existence of very different regions in the Universe.<br> If that is true, such a "destructive" scenario as depicted in this note, would not be likely.<br> <br> <br> </body> </html>