Jun 25, 2014 07:39 AM EDT
Higgs Boson Should Have Made Our Universe Collapse After Big Bang

British cosmologists believe that the Higgs boson, a particle that makes up all matter, should have made our Universe collapse right after the Big Bang.

Based on new observations from the BICEP2 telescope in Antarctica, along with the actual discovery of the Higgs boson back in 2012, researchers claim that the Universe shouldn't have lasted longer than a second, according to King's College London press release.

The widely accepted Big Bang theory states that the beginning of the Universe started with the Big Bang, followed by a short period of rapid expansion known as "cosmic inflation."

"During the early universe, we expected cosmic inflation, this is a rapid expansion of the universe right after the Big Bang," said study co-author Robert Hogan, a doctoral candidate in physics at King's College in London, according to the release. "This expansion causes lots of stuff to shake around, and if we shake it too much, we could go into this new energy space, which could cause the universe to collapse."

The exact process remains unknown, but cosmologists have been able to predict how this would affect the Universe now.

Since the Large Hadron Collider particle accelerator in Geneva, Switzerland detected the Higgs boson in July 212, researchers have been able to find more about the mysterious particle, and its contributions to the inner workings of the Universe, according to the release.

If this took place, the Universe would have collapsed in a "big crunch" according to the study.

"This is an unacceptable prediction of the theory because if this had happened we wouldn't be around to discuss it," study leader Robert Hogan of King's College London said in a news release.

There is a chance the telescope made an error in its observations, but if it didn't, some other unexplained force is keeping the Universe afloat, according to the release.

Hogan presented his research on June 24 at the Royal Astronomical Society's National Astronomy Meeting in Portsmouth.

The study was published May 20 in the journal Physical Review Letters.

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