Our universe could have collapsed if the particle that gives other particles their mass had not been found. A wild new theory suggests that it might be a clue that we live in a multiverse of parallel worlds.
The theory suggests that only the smallest of worlds would survive because of the different sets of physical laws.
The creation of new particles would explain why the strong force keeps atoms from collapsing. Along the way, it could help reveal the nature of dark matter.
What is the nature of the particle? The God particle is explained.
For the first time in the history of physics, the elusive particle known as the Higgs boson was detected by the Large Hadron collider. The Standard Model is based on the idea that the weak nuclear force and the electromagnetic force are different.
The bad news came with the good news. Physicists thought the mass of the Higgs was 125 gigaelectronvolts, but it was actually 125 gigaelectronvolts.
The framework physicists use to describe the zoo of subatomic particles, known as the Standard Model, does not predict the value of the Higgs mass. The number has to be derived in order for that theory to work. Back-of-the-envelope calculations made physicists believe that the Higgs would have a large mass. After the champagne was opened and the prizes were handed out, the question was posed: Why does the Higgs have such a low mass?
The strong force is not behaving as the Standard Model predicts it should. Physicists use mathematics to describe high-energy interactions. The symmetry of charge, the symmetry of time, and the symmetry of parity are examples.
The strong force appears to obey the symmetry of charge reversal and parity reversal in all of the experiments performed to date. The strong force's mathematics do not show the same symmetry. Nature seems to be obeying symmetry even though no known natural phenomena should. What is happening?
Two theorists thought that the two problems might be related. The solution to the twin conundrums was outlined in a paper published in January.
The universe was born that way.
The multiverse is a theory of inflation. Inflation is the idea that in the earliest days of the Big bang, our universe doubled in size every billionth of a second.
Our universe has never stopped inflating, despite the fact that physicists are not sure what powered inflation or how it worked. Instead, what we call our universe is just one small patch of a larger universe that is constantly inflating and popping off new universes like foamy suds in your bathtub.
Different regions of theverse will have different values of the Higgs mass. The researchers found that universes with a large Higgs mass are collapsing before they get a chance to grow. Only the regions of the multiverse with low Higgs mass survive and have stable expansion rates, which leads to the development of planets and high-energy particle colliders.
The team had to add two more particles to make a multiverse. The Standard Model would be updated with these particles. The mass of the Higgs is determined by the interactions of the two new particles.
Two new particles are able to do other things.
The charge-parity symmetry that exists in nature is due to the particles modifying the strong force. They would act like an axion, a hypothetical particle that has been introduced in an attempt to explain the nature of the strong force.
The new particles are not limited to the early universe. They may still be in the present-day universe. If one of their mass is small enough, it would still be floating around in space.
The dark matter, invisible stuff that makes up 85% of all the matter in the universe, could be responsible for one of these new particles.
It is a bold suggestion to solve two of the greatest challenges to particle physics and also explain the nature of dark matter.
Is a solution really simple? The theory needs to be tested. Future experiments that are on the hunt for dark matter, like the underground facility the Super Cryogenic Dark Matter Search, could determine if the model predicts a certain mass range for the dark matter. The theory predicts that the electric charges within the neutron should be different from the predictions of the Standard Model.
We will have to wait awhile. It will take years, if not decades, to rule out or support the new idea.
It was originally published on Live Science.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
