A ring of 10 to 30 atoms, each inflated to a fragile, oversized state and held in place by laser tweezers, has given physicists what the authors describe as a highly controlled look at a quantum ...

The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. Vacuum decay, a process that could end the universe as we know it, may happen 10,000 times sooner than expected. Fortunately, it still ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Physicists have successfully simulated false vacuum decay, a quantum process theorized to be capable of ending the universe as we ...

Physicists in China have recreated a rare quantum effect known as false vacuum decay, a theoretical process that could abruptly transform the universe. Using a ring of highly excited Rydberg atoms ...

Physicists in China have simulated the effect of "false vacuum decay": a phenomenon believed to play out constantly in the seemingly empty expanses of space, and which one theory even suggests could ...

The universe may not be as stable as you think. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. This is the way the world ends: not with a bang, ...

Of all the possible ends of the universe, vacuum decay would be the most thorough. The universe is going to end. But of all the possible ends of the universe vacuum decay would have to be the most ...

Phase transitions are everywhere, ranging from water boiling to snowflakes melting, and from magnetic transitions in solids to cosmological phase transitions in the early universe. Particularly ...

Vacuum decay, a process that could end the universe as we know it, may happen 10,000 times sooner than expected. Fortunately, it still won’t happen for a very, very long time. When physicists speak of ...

One of the quantum fields that fills the universe is special because its default value seems poised to eventually change, changing everything. Vacuum decay, a process that could end the universe as we ...