The stability criteria for the electroweak interaction was first formulated in 1979[21] as a function of the masses of the theoretical Higgs boson and the heaviest fermion. Discovery of the top quark in 1995 and the Higgs boson in 2012 have allowed physicists to validate the criteria against experiment, therefore since 2012 the electroweak interaction is considered as the most promising candidate for a metastable fundamental force.[16] The corresponding false vacuum hypothesis is called either 'Electroweak vacuum instability' or 'Higgs vacuum instability'.[22] The present false vacuum state is called d S {\displaystyle dS} dS (De Sitter space), while tentative true vacuum is called A d S {\displaystyle AdS} {\displaystyle AdS} (Anti-de Sitter space).[23][24]

The diagrams show the uncertainty ranges of Higgs boson and top quark masses as oval-shaped lines. Underlying colors indicate if the electroweak vacuum state is likely to be stable, merely long-lived or completely unstable for given combination of masses.[25][26] The "electroweak vacuum decay" hypothesis was sometimes misreported as the Higgs boson "ending" the universe.[27][28][29] A 125.18±0.16 GeV/c2 [30] Higgs boson mass is likely to be on the metastable side of stable-metastable boundary (estimated in 2012 as 123.8–135.0 GeV.[16]) However, a definitive answer requires much more precise measurements of the top quark's pole mass,[16] although improved measurement precision of Higgs boson and top quark masses further reinforced the claim of physical electroweak vacuum being in the metastable state as of 2018.[4] Nonetheless, new physics beyond the Standard Model of Particle Physics could drastically change the stability landscape division lines, rendering previous stability and metastability criteria incorrect.[31][32]

If measurements of the Higgs boson and top quark suggest that our universe lies within a false vacuum of this kind, this would imply that, more than likely in many billions of years,[33] the bubble's effects will propagate across the universe at nearly the speed of light from its origin in space-time