Speedy quantum bubbles mimic the early universe ⚡ экспресс
Metastable states decay through the nucleation and growth of competing regions—think of how a supercooled liquid suddenly crystallizes. In a new study, researchers used a quantum annealer with over 4,000 qubits to simulate a false vacuum in a two-dimensional quantum Ising model. They found a regime where the growth of true vacuum bubbles outruns their appearance by orders of magnitude, and achieved nearly ballistic expansion when tuning a resonant magnetic field. The Kardar–Parisi–Zhang universality, usually describing the growth of bacterial colonies or forest fires, now shows up in quantum decay as well. This experiment opens the door to laboratory studies of nonequilibrium processes important for cosmology.
After the Big Bang, the universe may have been stuck in a false vacuum — a temporary state like a soap bubble ready to pop. A rare true vacuum bubble could then erupt, stretching space in the blink of an eye. This snap, proposed by [scientist:Alan Guth], drove a cosmic inflation — a massive expansion of the very fabric of space.
Physicists recreated this on a chip with over 4000 qubits — tiny magnets that flip between states. They set all to ‘up’, creating a false vacuum, then flipped one to start a true-vacuum bubble. By tuning a magnetic field, they made the bubble’s boundary glide without drag, expanding as if friction didn’t exist. The edge became fuzzy, following the universal shape of spreading ink or a wildfire front.
The twist: one bubble raced so fast, no others could form. This runaway flips the usual script on order from chaos, linked to rising entropy. Such simulations offer glimpses of the early universe and help design materials like exotic superconductors.
🎯 The physicist [scientist:Stephen Hawking] once explored how a false vacuum decay could spawn a whole new baby universe inside a black hole.
🎬 Science fiction envisions a stray bubble of true vacuum as reality's off switch, instantly erasing everything — a terrifying notion from 'The Three-Body Problem'.