Did Chinese scientists simulate what could be the ‘end of the universe’?

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May 17, 2026 #Antoine Browaeys, #false vacuum decay, #Google, #Mikhail Lukin, #Physical Review Letters, #quantum computing, #quantum fluctuations, #quantum simulator, #Rydberg atom arrays, #Sidney Coleman, #South China Morning Post (SCMP), #Tsinghua University, #United States, #universe, #Wang Xiao

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Did Chinese scientists simulate what could be the ‘end of the universe’?

Tsinghua University team’s tackles one of most unsettling ideas in theoretical physics to possibly open a new pathway in quantum computing

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Researchers at Tsinghua University say they have recreated the core mechanism behind “false vacuum decay” using a programmable quantum simulator. Photo: Shutterstock

Chao Kongin BeijingPublished: 8:00pm, 17 May 2026

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.AdvertisementThe results of the experiment were published in the journal Physical Review Letters on March 27 and could open up a new pathway in quantum computing.

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.