What is Vacuum Decay?

To start, think of a ball on a hill.

The ball may stay up there for a LONNNG time, but eventually, its gonna come down.

This is a property of space too! if Quantum Field Theory is Correct, then the universe is governed by quantum fields. think of all these as balls. most have been transported down into the valley… including the Higgs field. this is called a “Vacuum.” (and to answer your unasked question, NO, this has NOTHING to do with the vacuum of space.)

But, new theories may suggest that this is false. Literally! the Higgs field may be in a false vacuum.

So, if the Higgs field gets the right “Push…” (This is called quantum tunnelling)

Then, it will roll into the valley below. as the Higgs field rolls down, it gets more and more and MORE energy, and it causes a chain reaction. making the Higgs fields around it go down into the energy level, and so on! this BUBBLE will expand at the speed of light, so there is NO way to know about it, until we are all dead. what’s inside the bubble? well… we dont know, but the guesses are that the was of physics will be rewritten completely!

But dont worry. even if MULTIPLE bubbles of death were created, they would still take millions or BILLIONS of years to get to us. the speed of light is NOT that fast, compared to the vast distances. there are more pressing issues on the Earth right now, such as climate change.