The Higgs particle could have ended the universe by now – here’s why we’re still here

Tarantula nebula – a starforming region – seen by the James Webb Space Telescope. Nasa, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERO Production Team, CC BY-SA

Although our universe may seem stable, having existed for a whopping 13.7 billion years, several experiments suggest that it is at risk – walking on the edge of a very dangerous cliff. And it’s all down to the instability of a single fundamental particle: the Higgs boson.

In new research by me and my colleagues, just accepted for publication in Physical Letters B, we show that some models of the early universe, those which involve objects called light primordial black holes, are unlikely to be right because they would have triggered the Higgs boson to end the cosmos by now.