No Such Thing as Heat Death

Heat death is the idea that our universe will at some point reach an equilibrium in which all energy has been spent in such a way that no more change is possible.

The conventional idea of this is a universe in which everything has decayed into radiation. There is no matter, just low energy radiation, and nothing happens because nothing can happen.

In the Velcro universe, there is too much energy for structures to decay into radiation, so there will always be structure. However, one can nevertheless conceive of a heat dead version of such a universe. It would be a place in which there is only one type of element and only one type of radiation, both of the most useless kind imaginable.

Let's for argument sake say that the useless element is iron and the useless radiation is radio wave photons.

This is a cold an uneventful universe. However, it is not quite dead. In the Velcro universe, matter soaks up radiation through mass condensation. The radio wave photons will gradually be incorporated into the protons.

This process will be extremely slow. After all, radio wave photons are nowhere near as energetic as gamma-rays which are the preferred source of mass condensation. However, it will still happen. Every now and again, a bunch of random radio wave photons strike a proton in such a way that one is consumed.

The iron will in this manner eventually become radioactive. While it continues to soak up radiation, it will every now and again decay into two smaller atoms and a gamma-ray photon. The result is diversity in both matter and radiation.

Our heat dead universe is gradually coming to life. As the process of mass condensation continues and accelerates, diversity increases.

So iron is clearly not a good end point as far as heat death is concerned. Let us therefore choose hydrogen instead. Hydrogen is nothing more than a single proton, so it cannot decay radioactively. It will therefore grow ever larger without ever becoming radioactive.

But even protons will eventually become unstable through mass condensation, and when they suddenly decay, something rather spectacular happens.

When protons decay into radiation, they fall utterly apart. They become pure high energy radiation.

Our heat dead universe springs to life in an instance. The over-extended protons evaporate into radiation. But the Velcro universe has too much energy to store solely as radiation, so structures are immediately formed.

Random structures of all types are created. Big and small atoms are formed, all with very light protons, ready to start their long journey to oblivion through mass condensation.

From this, we see that the Velcro universe is perpetually changing. It has no equilibrium. Matter will always soak up radiation. Matter will always end up radioactive, and protons will eventually decay into radiation.

Radiation on the other hand will never be able to hold all the energy of the universe. It must create structure in the form of matter. The cycles are perpetual. Matter is never at equilibrium. The universe has no end point from which there can be no more change.