The Future of the Universe

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There's a lot that we are still not really understanding about how physics works in this very fundamental way. I'm personally not a fan of any of these cyclic models just because they make it impossible to solve the arrow of time problem. All of our measurements of the cosmic evolution are fully consistent with the concordance cosmology, dark matter, dark energy, expansion, big bang. But we know that those things don't all fit together in a fully consistent fundamental theory. And so we know there's got to be something, at some point something's got to give. We don't know what it is and we don't have any clues really pointing us in a direction to figure it

Cosmologists are always talking excitedly about the Big Bang and all the cool stuff that happened in the 14 billion years between then and now. But what about the future? We don't know for sure, but we know enough about the laws of physics to sketch out several plausible scenarios for what the future of our universe will hold. Katie Mack is a cosmologist who is writing a book about the end of the universe. We talk about the possibilities of a Big Crunch (and potential Big Bounce), a gentle cooling off where the universe gradually grows silent, and of course the prospect of a dramatic phase transition, otherwise known as the "bubble of quantum death." Which would make a great name for a band, I think we can all agree.

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Katherine (Katie) Mack received her Ph.D. in physics from Princeton University. She is currently an Assistant Professor at North Carolina State University, where her research centers on theoretical cosmology, including dark matter and black holes. She is also a member of NCSU’s Leadership in Public Science Cluster. Her upcoming book, The End of Everything, will be published in 2020.

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