Physicists Simulate Cosmic Bubble Expansion That Could Erase Everything

If a certain tiny bubble suddenly appeared somewhere in the cosmos, physicists say, it could expand and erase everything in its path.

Known as “false vacuum decay”, the scenario has been one of the most unsettling ideas in theoretical physics for nearly half a century.

The experiment simulated how a metastable “false vacuum” could tunnel into a lower-energy “true vacuum” through purely quantum effects, triggering the formation and expansion of destructive vacuum bubbles.

The research does not suggest the universe is about to collapse.