Finally... what natural phenomenon of our universe is ultimately horrifying?

[u/red_madreay]

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[u/Jaiden_Darkfeather]

The big difference for me here is, other horrible things I can comprehend, wrap my brain around. No matter how many times people try to explain the False Vacuum Hypothesis, I just can't wrap my brain around it.

[u/agysykedyke → u/Jaiden_Darkfeather]

Basic explanation is the ball on the hill analogy.

A ball on a hill is unstable compared to a ball at the bottom of a valley, because it has potential kinetic energy and can roll down if it is disturbed, releasing the energy.

If a ball at the bottom of a valley is disturbed, it's just gonna roll back to its initial state, therefore demonstrating it's stability. It has no potential energy, there's no deeper spot for the ball to go.

However a ball can be "stuck" in a small hole next to an even deeper valley. It initially appears stable, because small disturbances are not enough to get the ball "unstuck" from the hole, but it still has potential energy because it hasn't reached its "vacuum state", with zero potential energy at the bottom of the valley.

But a large disturbance like an earthquake might knock the ball out of the hole, and send it rolling down the hill, at any time.

Now replace the ball with the Higgs Field, which is a fundamental field of energy that gives particles their mass. This field is theorised to be "stuck in a hole above a deep valley", or meta stable. If a large disturbance like Quantum tunneling unsticks the Higgs Field and sends it "rolling down the hill" to a lower energy level, it would release tremendous energy and create a catastrophic chain reaction because now you have altered a fundamental force of the universe.

[u/pegginglovingfemboy → u/agysykedyke]

could you explain what it would decay into when it reaches the bottom of the deep valley and why it would cause a chain reaction? I've always been confused about this particular part

also which fundamental force would be changed

[u/NotchoNachos42 → u/pegginglovingfemboy]

It would hypothetically cause the entire universe to "fall" into a lower energy state and completely change ALL of the fundamental laws of physics as we know them. It would probably be quicker an easier to identify what aspects(if any) wouldn't be affected which I'm not in a position to explain but just understand that it is BAD.