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How the Physics of Nothing Underlies Everything

The Quanta Podcast

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Is There a Bubble of Nothing?

Physicist Edward Whitten first discovered the bubble of nothing in 1982. While studying a vacuum with one extra dimension curled up into a tiny circle at each point, he found that quantum jitters inevitably jiggled the extra dimension - sometimes shrinking the circle to a point. The instability would spawn a rapidly expanding bubble with no interior,. Its mirror-like surface marking the end of space time itself.

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