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The Universe Will Eventually Tear Itself ApartMARK GARLICK\/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY – Getty Images<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what you\u2019ll learn when you read this story:<\/p>\n
It may seem like the universe is one enormous (if not infinite) unit, but new research suggests it could one day be torn apart.<\/p>\n
Researchers built a theoretical model of the cosmos to explore what quantum gravity might mean for the universe\u2019s distant future.<\/p>\n
Depending on whether certain limits were positive or negative, the universe winds up getting shredded.<\/p>\n
Seen from our blue marble as it spins among the hundreds of millions of star systems in the Milky Way<\/a>, the universe around us looks like it\u2019s one big cohesive whole. Everything that came onto the scene with the Big Bang 14 billion years ago immediately started expanding and is continuing to expand together as if the fabric of the cosmos is a single, enormous entity. That vision of unity might let most of us sleep at night, but what if the universe wasn\u2019t actually cohesive, and instead existed as separate regions that would eventually pull away from each other and tear all the planets and moons and stars and galaxies<\/a> we know to cosmic shreds? That\u2019s the central idea behind the Big Rip theory: the universe\u2019s expansion accelerates so dramatically that it eventually destroys all matter, from galaxies down to atoms.<\/p>\n Hold off on the doomsday prepping for a second, though\u2014just because something could happen in theory doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019ll happen in reality. But to researchers Diego Castillo and Fernando M\u00e9ndez of the University of Santiago, Chile, the possibility is intriguing. They wanted to see what would unfold if they created a cosmological<\/a> model\u2014a mathematical framework used to simulate the universe’s behavior\u2014 in which the universe consisted of two regions, and then those regions were affected by quantum gravity<\/a>. Theories of quantum gravity attempt to merge gravity as it operates on a large scale with the often unfathomably small scales of quantum physics\u2014a notoriously difficult unification, since the rules governing each realm seem fundamentally incompatible. Castillo and M\u00e9ndez took their model and added the Generalized Uncertainty Principle (GUP)<\/a>, which extends a foundational idea from quantum physics to predict the smallest measurable length possible.<\/p>\n To understand the GUP, it helps to start with its foundation: the Uncertainty Principle<\/a>, put forth by German theoretical physicist Werner Heisenberg in the late 1920s. In classical physics, all quantities can have exact values at the same time, but quantum<\/a> physics challenges that idea. Take position and momentum\u2014under the uncertainty principle, the more precisely the position of a particle is determined, the less precisely its momentum will then end up being determined. That\u2019s why the two values can never be assigned simultaneously with precision. The GUP builds on this idea by applying it at the grandest possible scale, suggesting that just as there\u2019s a limit to how precisely we can measure a particle, there\u2019s also a minimum length below which nothing in the universe can be meaningfully measured. By incorporating the GUP into their two-region model, Castillo and M\u00e9ndez were effectively asking what happens when quantum-scale limits on measurement are applied to the large-scale structure and fate of the universe itself.<\/p>\n What M\u00e9ndez and Castillo observed in their mathematical model of the cosmos was consistent with the Big Rip theory<\/a>. The idea is that if dark energy<\/a> grows stronger over time, its gravity will become so overwhelming that it will unbind these objects and scatter them throughout the darkness, essentially tearing the universe apart. This scenario only becomes more catastrophic if the universe is divided into two regions and the GUP is factored in. For such a phenomenon to happen, one region can even go without a cosmological constant or any starting momentum, but both regions need a positive deformation limit.<\/p>\n \u201cGUP deformation naturally induces communication between the two cosmological patches, in a way reminiscent of non-commutative models,\u201d the researchers said in a study recently published in Universe<\/a>. \u201cThe deformation becomes dynamically relevant at late times, leading to a super-accelerated evolution that culminates in a Big-Rip-type behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n Deformation parameters are limits to how an object can be warped under certain conditions. There\u2019s also another parameter necessary to enable the Big Rip, and that\u2019s the relationship between the size of deformation parameters and the time at which the universe is torn apart. The larger the parameter values, the sooner it ends up shredding itself, while lower values will delay the inevitable and (no doubt) draw a collective sigh of relief from doomsday<\/a> preppers everywhere. Another reason you might not need to start stocking bunker shelves with extra toothpaste and toilet paper just yet is that the universe can only be annihilated if the parameter values are positive. With negative values, the math collapses and the two regions of the universe are separated, meaning one would end up contracting while the other would completely freeze.<\/p>\n While their theory seems worthy of its own sci-fi movie, Castillo and M\u00e9ndez are careful to point out that their calculations only represent what would happen in the vacuum of space. If it were factored in, the presence of matter<\/a> could bring about a drastic change in their model\u2019s behavior. Because matter exerts gravity, its gravitational attraction could either delay or accelerate the tearing of spacetime<\/a>\u2014so they plan to modify the hypothesis by including matter and testing it again in the future.<\/p>\n