Is the Universe Doomed to a Second Big Bang?

A New Scientist press release announces a new report out of Case Western Reserve University that analyzes the effects on the life span of the Universe of having measured dark energy, and researchers suggest that the quantum Zeno effect has reset dark energy's clock increasing the chance of another cataclysmic cosmic big bang.

The quantum Zeno effect and its antithesis, the quantum anti-Zeno effect, is the controversial proposition that posits that when measuring events and particles on the quantum level, the light needed to make the measurement so effects the event or particle that the measurement becomes essentially impossible because the particle or event is knocked out of place or deterred from its progress. This effect is said to "reset" the event's or particle's progress "clock," thus forcing it to begin again or, more colloquially, forcing it Home without collecting $200.

Lawrence Krauss and his colleague James Dent, both of Case Western, suggest in their new report that science may have inadvertently called down the Zeno effect on the Universe due to a measurement taken a decade ago in 1998 when dark energy was first observed and thus, to some extent, measured. Krauss and Dent suggest that this observation "reset" the "clock" of dark energy, thus causing it to go back to its original pre-baryonic matter (ordinary matter as opposed to antimatter) state. What does that mean to us in the baryonic Universe?

Long ago, in our Universe, theory has it that a false vacuum existed comprised of high energy with repulsive gravity--as opposed to the attractive gravity that we know--that underwent an energy state transition, or decay. Some of the energy decayed into an ordinary zero-energy vacuum that accommodates the presence of baryonic matter--us.

Some of the weired high energy of the false vacuum remained in a false vacuum with repulsive gravity. This conclusion regarding the continuation of a false vacuum was reached after dark energy and the expansion of the Universe were discovered.

Shifts in energy states, as in the transition, or decay, from a false vacuum to an ordinary vacuum, happen at random, just like decay in radioactive atoms is random. Since the Universe still holds dark energy in a false vacuum, the potential exists that the false vacuum could undergo another energy state transition, another Big Bang. If that were to happen, the Universe as we know it would be annihilated. What is the likelihood that another false vacuum energy state transition will occur?

In the mid-twentieth century, Russian physicist L. Khalfin showed that the probability for the continuation of a quantum system (e.g., false vacuum, ordinary vacuum) falls exponentially until it reaches a certain point of time. After this, the rate of probability for the discontinuation of the quantum system switches and the rate is much lower, which means the quantum state could then become essentially eternal.

According to calculations, our Universe, with a vacuum value slight above zero, is probably beyond the rate switching point, meaning that our Universe is set to essentially endure eternally, with its companion false vacuum. Enter the quantum Zeno effect: the effect that says that the routing of quantum particles along a set course is interfered with so the particles loop in a sort of "auto-rewind" cycle.

It is possible, according to Krauss and Dent, that the observation of the supernovae in 1998 that enabled the observation and indirect measurement of dark energy may have reset the quantum clock of the dark energy ushering it back to an earlier time when the odds of its discontinuation were exponentially higher. The false vacuum may now be at an unstable state wherein a random state transition, or decay, could occur that would release super-massive energy destroying the entire Universe with one big bang.

"So it is entirely possible it could decay again, wiping the slate of our universe clean," said Krauss. If the quantum Zeno effect is applicable to dark energy and if dark energy is indeed the false vacuum, then, as Krauss said, "In short, we may have snatched away the possibility of long-term survival for our universe and made it more likely it will decay."

Opponents, such as Max Tegmark of MIT, contend that humans are not needed as the observers who trigger the quantum Zeno effect: galaxies may serve as "observers." If such is the case, then galaxies have been "observing" the false vacuum for eons. Tegmark said, "When we humans in turn observe the light from these galaxies, it changes nothing except our own knowledge."

"Have we sealed the universe's fate by looking at it?,"New Scientist.

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