Is the Universe Metastable?

What if I told you the universe itself might be living on borrowed time? In 2012,

scientists at CERN confirmed the existence of the Higgs boson, a particle that explains how everything

gets mass. It was a massive victory for physics—but it also revealed something unsettling.

The Higgs field is unique. It has an energy landscape, often shown as a

“Mexican hat” shape. In the early universe, the Higgs field rolled down into a valley,

and that’s where it’s been ever since. Our entire universe depends on that position.

But that picture is only part of the story. When quantum effects are added,

the landscape can change. Our valley may not be the lowest one. Instead,