Comments on: Doomsday Scenario

By: Radhika Srinath

Radhika Srinath — Thu, 25 Oct 2018 07:37:40 +0000

How s earth’ s formation related to the probability of occurrence of vacuum decay? Does this decay require any specific condition to occur? If no specific condition is actually required, on what basis do u suggest it will take billions of years to happen? It can occur even now, at this moment as I’m typing this can it occur? How the weight of Higgs Boson related to this?
I’ve only come across this term – vacuum delay in ur blog. I’ve no idea of how it will happen. Eager to know more actually. Would u pls clarify my doubts…

By: LvB

LvB — Wed, 15 Mar 2017 07:55:55 +0000

My understanding from what I’ve read on the topic is that vacuum decay would happen in a tiny region of space and expand outward at the speed of light. So isn’t it possible that vacuum has already happened *somewhere* in the universe and it just hasn’t reached us yet? And along the same lines, with the universe expanding at an ever increasing rate, isn’t it possible that vacuum decay could occur in a portion of the universe that is currently or will be expanding away from us faster than the speed of light, past the edge of the observable universe, thereby never reaching us?

By: Ricky

Ricky — Wed, 15 Mar 2017 07:47:37 +0000

Even if it did happen in one part of the Universe, and the effect traveled at the speed of light. It might still never reach us, given the expanding universe.

By: genialityofevil

genialityofevil — Wed, 15 Mar 2017 00:26:10 +0000

To put it another way, the probability of a planet forming doesn’t decline over time, it declines when stars stop providing enough material for them to form. Stellar activity may well be lower now than it was in the early universe, but it’s not significantly changed from 5 billion years ago (to my knowledge).

By: genialityofevil

genialityofevil — Wed, 15 Mar 2017 00:20:32 +0000

How can you use the formation of Earth as a benchmark? The Sun isn’t a first generation star, it formed from the remnants of another star, that formed from the remnants of yet another star. So Earth’s formation “lateness” isn’t really relevant. The Sun will die itself in a few billion years and give birth to a new nebula that will spawn stars.
If the universe tunnelled to a lower state in 50 billion years there would still be stars and planets forming then. How “late” they are doesn’t matter because the conditions of their formation aren’t tied to a change in the vacuum state of the universe.

By: Rob Frost

Rob Frost — Tue, 14 Mar 2017 21:52:57 +0000

That’s a terrible probability estimate. Somebody should read up on catastrophe theory. They are always more likely than you think because it’s the source of catastrophe you don’t see coming that gets you.

By: Brian Koberlein

Brian Koberlein — Tue, 14 Mar 2017 20:05:50 +0000

No, that’s the upper limit. Basically there’s a 99.9% chance that it wouldn’t happen in a billion years.

By: Balazs Vagvolgyi (@BalazsVagvolgyi)

Balazs Vagvolgyi (@BalazsVagvolgyi) — Tue, 14 Mar 2017 18:16:03 +0000

The odds of cosmic destruction are “1 in 1.1 billion years”? That sounds like there is a 100% chance for it to happen in 1.1 billion years. That’s actually scary. I’m sure I’m just misunderstanding what you wrote. Can you please clarify?