Relativity Lite

84 | Relativity Lite nevertheless be some size for the star at which the inward and outward tendencies on the gasses do balance. Suppose we were to try to contain the false vacuum associated with the Higgs field in a piston. Unlike that of photons or conventional particles, the energy of the Higgs field is not contained in any oscillations of this field but in a number, in the value of the Higgs field. So its energy-density is constant. As one pulls the plunger outward on this piston, the volume of the false vacuum increases, and since its energy per unit volume is constant, the energy inside the piston must increase. Where would this energy come from? It would be pro- vided by your hand pulling outward on the plunger. Put another way, should you attempt to pull outward on the plunger, you will feel a resistance from the false vacuum inside. Un- like a piston filled with conventional gasses or particles, the Higgs vacuum exerts negative pressure. So what do you suppose is the gravitational effect of this negative pressure if the gravi- tational effect of conventional, positive pressure is a stronger gravitational force or a deeper warpage of spacetime downward? Indeed, it would be a warpage of spacetime upward that will send objects rolling outward rather than inward. In Newtonian terms, the negative pressure of the expanding Higgs false vacuum will exert an antigravitational force. Our positive pressure holding up a star caused more gravitational force inward that moved the gasses inward until they experienced even more positive pressure to balance it. Likewise, the antigravitational force caused by the negative pressure of the Higgs false vacuum would cause it to expand further and this would exert a larger antigravitational force. This leads to a runaway expansion of epic proportions. Within 10 −35 seconds, the universe would double 100 times to become 10 30 times its original size! * IS THERE EVIDENCE OF INFLATION? A diagram reproduced in figure 7, from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) mission, shows the initial inflationary fraction of a second on the left, a standard Big Bang expansion in the middle, and an accelerating expansion (which we will get to in a bit) on the right. * Alan H. Guth, The Inflationary Universe: The Quest for a New Theory of Cosmic Origins (Addison Wesley, Reading, MA, 1997), p. 171–77.