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Destroying the universe: How hard can it be?

defensesindepth.bio · 4,726 words · saved by 1 readers

The universe is probably not stable, but intentionally triggering its decay might still be impossible.

In quantum field theory, the vacuum state refers to the lowest energy state in a system. Particles are excitations above this state and carry energy, hence the term "vacuum" to refer to the state with no particles. Nothing requires this state to be unique. There may be many different field configurations that are local energy minima, and hence stable against small perturbations. A local minimum that does not globally minimize energy is called a false vacuum. While locally it looks like a stable vacuum, it is unstable and will decay to the deeper, true vacuum. If the energy barrier between the

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