Our Universe Can “Pop” Out of Existence

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

In physics, we tend to think that an empty vacuum is the lowest energy state of existence.  But if there is another, lower-energy state below it, then our entire reality is akin to thin ice over a frozen lake; a single puncture would cause the whole of reality to fold up and sink, and an entire new universe would radiate from that reality fracture point, known as a “vacuum metastability event”.  Now, since changes in the laws of physics have to travel at lightspeed, we have no way of detecting the end of the universe; we would simply cease to exist.  The multiple-universe model suggests that existence consists of bubbles of entire universes constantly popping out of existence, and ours will eventually be the next one. 

This theory is somewhat testable.  When the Large Hadron Collider found the mass of the Higgs boson particle, we were able to calculate the stability of our universe.  The required minimum Higgs mass for our universe to be stable, and not pop like a bubble is 129.8 GeV.  The measured Higgs boson mass is 125 GeV.  We are not quite there.  Our universe will eventually end.  It will simply cease to be, like it never was.