Part 9/14:
If the Higgs vacuum is not the absolute lowest energy state but a local minimum, quantum tunneling could trigger a transition. Current measurements suggest we are metastable, with the universe "standing" in a precarious state that could decay billions of years from now, or perhaps at any unpredictable moment.
This potential decay involves an instantaneous bubble expanding at near-light speed, annihilating the existing universe and giving rise to a radically different one, with altered fundamental constants and laws.