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.