Universe could undergo a 'catastrophic change' that could alter absolutely everything

Sign up to our free weekly IndyTech newsletter delivered straight to your inbox Sign up to our free IndyTech newsletter Sign up to our free IndyTech newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy The universe could undergo a catastrophe that would change absolutely everything, scientists have shown using a quantum machine. Quantum annealer has simulated the fundamental process of false vacuum decay, opening the window to the understanding of interactions between true vacuum bubbles ) That could lead to a total change in the structure of the universe. What we really need are controlled experiments to observe this process and determine its time scales.” Scientists used a particular kind of quantum machine to simulate how bubbles behave in a false vacuum. “If that is indeed the case, quantum mechanics would allow the Universe to eventually tunnel to the lowest energy state or the ‘true’ vacuum and that process would result in a cataclysmic global event.” A paper describing the work, ‘Stirring the false vacuum via interacting quantized bubbles on a 5564-qubit quantum annealer’, is published in Nature Physics today.