Baby universecan you make a universe in a lab?

Physicists have studied what it would take to make a universe. The real research behind the Cosmos Era ending “Baby universe”, from Farhi and Guth to inflation.

Could you create a new universe in a laboratory? Edward Farhi and Alan Guth studied the question seriously in 1987, and in 1990 Farhi, Guth and Jemal Guven went a step further. The conclusion: general relativity allows a small lump of false vacuum to expand into a "baby universe" causally cut off from ours, but in classical physics the starting point must be a singularity, and quantum tunneling might get around that. Actually making a baby universe and shaping its physical constants is fiction.

This page first explains how to unlock the ending, then covers the real research behind the “Cosmic factory”, and then the development of expansion and inflation theory, so you can see why physicists would consider "making a universe" at all.

How to unlock it

  • Hint: First watch this universe die, then decide whether to make a new one.
  • Condition: First witness the ending “Proton decay”. Then unlock “Cosmic factory” and witness the end of the universe.
  • Reward: You can write an opening line for the next universe and rewrite one physical constant for free (only for the next universe).

The “Cosmic factory” node says that a universe must die before a new one gets its turn.

Real research: the conditions for making a universe

  • 1987: Farhi and Guth studied whether a new universe could be made in a lab. General relativity allows a small lump of false vacuum to expand into a "baby universe" causally cut off from ours, but in classical physics the starting point must be a singularity.
  • 1990: Together with Guven, they proposed that quantum tunneling might get around this.

Why physicists dare to think about it

The theory of cosmic expansion supplied, step by step, the concepts that "making a universe" needs.

  • Friedmann derived from general relativity that the universe can expand or contract, seven years before observational evidence appeared (Friedmann, Zeitschrift für Physik, 1922).
  • Lemaître independently proposed that the universe is expanding, and later imagined that it began from a "primeval atom", an early form of Big Bang theory (Lemaître, Annales de la Société Scientifique de Bruxelles, 1927).
  • The farther a galaxy is from us, the faster it recedes. The universe is not static (Hubble, PNAS, 1929).
  • Guth proposed that the early universe went through exponential expansion, explaining at one stroke why the universe is so flat and why its temperature is almost the same everywhere (Guth, Physical Review D, 1981).
  • Andrei Linde fixed the problem of how inflation could end gracefully, making inflation theory truly workable (Linde, Physics Letters B, 1982).

It is worth noting that the Guth who studied baby universes is the same Guth who proposed inflation.

What the universe is made of

Using distant supernovae as "standard candles", astronomers found that the expansion of the universe is accelerating, and dark energy arrived on the scene. The work won the 2011 Nobel Prize (Riess et al., The Astronomical Journal, 1998). Another team independently reached the same conclusion (Perlmutter et al., The Astrophysical Journal, 1999). The Planck satellite gave the most precise cosmological parameters so far: an age of about 13.8 billion years, and ordinary matter at only about 5% (Planck Collaboration, Astronomy & Astrophysics, 2020).

Higgs proposed a field filling all of space that gives particles mass (Higgs, Physical Review Letters, 1964), and the Large Hadron Collider found a new particle at about 125 GeV, confirming a prediction that had waited 48 years (ATLAS Collaboration, Physics Letters B, 2012). The game's reward lets you rewrite one physical constant, which is fiction.

The end of the universe

The fate of the universe trillions of years from now and beyond: stars burn out, protons may decay, and black holes eventually evaporate (Adams and Laughlin, Reviews of Modern Physics, 1997). This echoes the hint's "first watch this universe die".

Game lore, not real

Actually making a baby universe and shaping its physical constants is fiction. Asimov's The Last Question (1956) is about people asking an ever more powerful computer, generation after generation, whether the increase of entropy can be reversed. Each time it answers "insufficient data for meaningful answer", until the very last moment of the universe. Its scientific background is this: the second law of thermodynamics has no known exception, and the heat death of the universe is one of the mainstream predictions.

Want to read the originals? Search these titles

  • Friedmann (1922): "Über die Krümmung des Raumes", roughly "On the curvature of space"
  • Guth (1981): "Inflationary universe: A possible solution to the horizon and flatness problems"
  • Linde (1982): "A new inflationary universe scenario"
  • Higgs (1964): "Broken symmetries and the masses of gauge bosons"
  • Adams and Laughlin (1997): "A dying universe: the long-term fate and evolution of astrophysical objects"

Real basis

  • Farhi and Guth in 1987, and Farhi, Guth and Guven in 1990, seriously studied the physical conditions for making a universe in a lab.

  • Cosmic factory: In 1987 Farhi and Guth studied whether a new universe could be made in a lab. General relativity allows a small blob of false vacuum to expand into a “baby universe” causally cut off from ours, but in classical physics the starting point must be a singularity. In 1990 they and Guven proposed that quantum tunneling might get around this.

  • The Last Question (Isaac Asimov, 1956), the science: the second law of thermodynamics has no known exceptions; heat death is one of the leading predictions for the universe.

Related research

These studies relate to this topic but are not direct proof of this page.

  • The universe is expanding: Hubble found that the farther a galaxy is, the faster it recedes. The universe isn't static; it is expanding.

    Source: Hubble, PNAS 1929, "A relation between distance and radial velocity among extra-galactic nebulae"

  • Friedmann's universe: Friedmann derived from general relativity that the universe can expand or contract, seven years before the observational evidence.

    Source: Friedmann, Zeitschrift für Physik 1922, "Über die Krümmung des Raumes"

  • The primeval atom: Lemaître independently proposed that the universe is expanding, and later imagined it began as a “primeval atom,” the forerunner of Big Bang theory.

    Source: Lemaître, Annales de la Société Scientifique de Bruxelles 1927, "Un Univers homogène de masse constante et de rayon croissant"

  • Inflationary universe: Guth proposed that the early universe underwent exponential expansion, explaining in one stroke why it is so flat and why temperatures are almost the same everywhere.

    Source: Guth, Physical Review D 1981, "Inflationary universe: A possible solution to the horizon and flatness problems"

  • New inflation: Linde fixed the problem of how inflation could end gracefully, making inflation theory truly workable.

    Source: Linde, Physics Letters B 1982, "A new inflationary universe scenario"

  • Accelerating expansion: Using distant supernovae as “standard candles,” they found the expansion of the universe is accelerating. Dark energy entered the picture, and the work won the 2011 Nobel Prize.

    Source: Riess et al., The Astronomical Journal 1998, "Observational evidence from supernovae for an accelerating universe and a cosmological constant"

  • 42 supernovae: Another team independently reached the same conclusion: some energy in the universe is driving the accelerating expansion.

    Source: Perlmutter et al., The Astrophysical Journal 1999, "Measurements of Omega and Lambda from 42 high-redshift supernovae"

  • Recipe of the universe: The Planck satellite gave the most precise cosmological parameters yet: an age of about 13.8 billion years, with ordinary matter only about 5%.

    Source: Planck Collaboration, Astronomy & Astrophysics 2020, "Planck 2018 results. VI. Cosmological parameters"

  • Where mass comes from: Higgs proposed a field filling space that gives particles mass, and predicted a new particle.

    Source: Higgs, Physical Review Letters 1964, "Broken symmetries and the masses of gauge bosons"

  • Finding the Higgs particle: The Large Hadron Collider found a new particle at about 125 GeV, confirming a prediction made 48 years earlier.

    Source: ATLAS Collaboration, Physics Letters B 2012, "Observation of a new particle in the search for the Standard Model Higgs boson with the ATLAS detector at the LHC"

  • The last chapter of the universe: Worked out the fate of the universe over trillions of years and beyond: stars go out, protons perhaps decay, and black holes finally evaporate.

    Source: Adams & Laughlin, Reviews of Modern Physics 1997, "A dying universe: the long-term fate and evolution of astrophysical objects"

Game lore (fictional)

  • Actually building a baby universe and influencing its physical constants is fiction.
  • Node “Cosmic factory”: A universe has to die before a new one gets its turn.
  • Summary of the novel The Last Question: Generation after generation, people ask an ever more powerful computer whether the increase of entropy can be reversed. Each time it answers “insufficient data”, until the very last moment of the universe.
See it in the game