Researchers at Tsinghua University have recreated a core mechanism of 'false vacuum decay', a theoretical scenario where a cosmic bubble expands and erases 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. Now, researchers at Tsinghua University say they have recreated the core mechanism behind the phenomenon using a programmable quantum simulator. The results of the experiment were published in the journal Physical Review Letters.....