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of a millionth of a second—the false vacuum would collapse, reverting to the true vacuum, with its everyday zero-point energy that we observe in our universe. It was like a pot of water that was instantly flash heated to a huge temperature. Little bubbles of “true” vacuum would have formed and expanded at the speed of light. Our observable universe sits inside one of these bubbles—or several of them that got linked together. The asymmetry of the universe could be explained by the asymmetrical nature of these expanding bubbles that formed and merged. According to this theory of inflation, it is the nonzero zero-point energy that created the stars and galaxies.

Zero might also hold the secret of what created the cosmos. Just as the nothingness of the vacuum and the zero-point energy spawn particles, they might spawn universes. The froth of quantum foam, the spontaneous birth and death of particles, might explain the origin of the cosmos. Perhaps the universe is just a quantum fluctuation on a grand scale—an enormous singular particle that came into existence out of the ultimate vacuum. This cosmic egg would explode, inflate, and create the space-time of our universe. It may be that our universe is simply one of many fluctuations. Some physicists believe that the singularities at the center of black holes are windows into the primordial quantum foam before the big bang—and the froth of foam at the center of a black hole, where time and space have no meaning, is constantly creating countless numbers of new universes that bubble off, inflate, and create their own stars and galaxies. Zero might hold the secret to our existence—and the existence of an infinite number of other universes.

Zero is so powerful because it unhinges the laws of physics. It is at the zero hour of the big bang and the ground zero of the black hole that the mathematical equations that describe our world stop making sense. However, zero cannot be ignored. Not only does zero hold the secret to our existence, it will also be responsible for the end of the universe.

Chapter 9

Zero’s Final Victory

[END TIME]

This is the way the world ends

Not with a bang but a whimper.

—T. S. ELIOT, “THE HOLLOW MEN”

While some physicists are trying to eliminate zero from their equations, others are showing that zero may have the last laugh. Even though scientists might never unlock the secrets of the universe’s birth, they are on the brink of understanding its death. The ultimate fate of the cosmos lies with zero.

Einstein’s gravitational equations didn’t allow for a static, unchanging universe. They did, however, allow for several other fates, which depend on the amount of mass in the cosmos. In the case of a light universe, the balloon of space-time could expand forever, getting bigger and bigger. The stars and galaxies would wink out, one by one. The universe grows cold and dies a heat death. However, if there is enough mass—galaxies, galaxy clusters, and unseen dark matter—the initial push given by the big bang wouldn’t be enough to allow the balloon to inflate forever. The galaxies would tug on one another, eventually pulling the fabric of space-time together; the balloon would begin to deflate. The deflation would get faster and faster, the universe would get hotter and hotter, and it would eventually end in a backward big bang: the big crunch. Which will be our fate: big crunch or heat death? The answer is at hand.

When astronomers peer at a distant galaxy, they are looking backward in time. A nearby galaxy might be a million light-years away. A light beam leaving that galaxy now will take a million years to make its trip to Earth; the light reaching our eyes now left that galaxy a million years ago. The more distant the objects that astronomers look at, the farther back they are looking in time.

The universe’s fate hinges on how well our space-time balloon is expanding. If the expansion is slowing down rapidly, then it’s a good sign that the energy from the big bang is nearly spent; our universe would be heading for a big crunch. On the