---
OA_place: publisher
OA_type: hybrid
PlanS_conform: '1'
_id: '19012'
abstract:
- lang: eng
  text: False vacuum decay—the transition from a metastable quantum state to a true
    vacuum state—plays an important role in quantum field theory and non-equilibrium
    phenomena such as phase transitions and dynamical metastability. The non-perturbative
    nature of false vacuum decay and the limited experimental access to this process
    make it challenging to study, leaving several open questions regarding how true
    vacuum bubbles form, move and interact. Here we observe quantized bubble formation
    in real time, a key feature of false vacuum decay dynamics, using a quantum annealer
    with 5,564 superconducting flux qubits. We develop an effective model that captures
    both initial bubble creation and subsequent interactions, and remains accurate
    under dissipation. The annealer reveals coherent scaling laws in the driven many-body
    dynamics for more than 1,000 intrinsic qubit time units. This work provides a
    method for investigating false vacuum dynamics of large quantum systems in quantum
    annealers.
acknowledgement: J.V., D.W. and M.W. acknowledge support from the project Jülich UNified
  Infrastructure for Quantum computing (JUNIQ) that has received funding from the
  German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Ministry of Culture
  and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. A.R. acknowledges support from
  the project HPCQS (101018180) of the European High-Performance Computing Joint Undertaking
  (EuroHPC JU). J.-Y.D., A.H. and Z.P. acknowledge support from the Leverhulme Trust
  Research Leadership Award RL-2019-015 and EPSRC grant nos. EP/R513258/1 and EP/W026848/1.
  J.-Y.D. acknowledges support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and
  innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement no.101034413.
  This research was supported in part by grant no. NSF PHY-2309135 to the Kavli Institute
  for Theoretical Physics (KITP). Computational portions of this research work were
  carried out on ARC3 and ARC4, part of the high-performance computing facilities
  at the University of Leeds. G.H. acknowledges financial support from ARIS, P1-0040
  Nonequilibrium Quantum System Dynamics. We gratefully acknowledge the Jülich Supercomputing
  Centre (https://www.fz-juelich.de/en/ias/jsc) for funding this project by providing
  computing time on the D-Wave Advantage System JUPSI through JUNIQ. We acknowledge
  helpful theoretical discussions with G. Lagnese and the quantum-simulation-related
  discussions with D-Wave’s experimental team, particularly A. MacDonald, G. Poulin-Lamarre,
  A. Daian and A. Berkley. We also thank V. Goliber and A. Mason for patiently organizing
  and mediating the corresponding meetings that enabled the discussions with D-Wave’s
  team. J.V., A.R., D.W., F.J., M.W. and K.M. gratefully acknowledge the Gauss Centre
  for Supercomputing e.V. (www.gauss-centre.eu) for funding this project by providing
  computing time on the GCS Supercomputer JUWELS at Jülich Supercomputing Centre (JSC).
article_processing_charge: Yes (via OA deal)
article_type: original
arxiv: 1
author:
- first_name: Jaka
  full_name: Vodeb, Jaka
  last_name: Vodeb
- first_name: Jean-Yves Marc
  full_name: Desaules, Jean-Yves Marc
  id: 6c292945-a610-11ed-9eec-c3be1ad62a80
  last_name: Desaules
  orcid: 0000-0002-3749-6375
- first_name: Andrew
  full_name: Hallam, Andrew
  last_name: Hallam
- first_name: Andrea
  full_name: Rava, Andrea
  last_name: Rava
- first_name: Gregor
  full_name: Humar, Gregor
  last_name: Humar
- first_name: Dennis
  full_name: Willsch, Dennis
  last_name: Willsch
- first_name: Fengping
  full_name: Jin, Fengping
  last_name: Jin
- first_name: Madita
  full_name: Willsch, Madita
  last_name: Willsch
- first_name: Kristel
  full_name: Michielsen, Kristel
  last_name: Michielsen
- first_name: Zlatko
  full_name: Papić, Zlatko
  last_name: Papić
citation:
  ama: Vodeb J, Desaules J-YM, Hallam A, et al. Stirring the false vacuum via interacting
    quantized bubbles on a 5,564-qubit quantum annealer. <i>Nature Physics</i>. 2025;21:386-392.
    doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-024-02765-w">10.1038/s41567-024-02765-w</a>
  apa: Vodeb, J., Desaules, J.-Y. M., Hallam, A., Rava, A., Humar, G., Willsch, D.,
    … Papić, Z. (2025). Stirring the false vacuum via interacting quantized bubbles
    on a 5,564-qubit quantum annealer. <i>Nature Physics</i>. Springer Nature. <a
    href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-024-02765-w">https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-024-02765-w</a>
  chicago: Vodeb, Jaka, Jean-Yves Marc Desaules, Andrew Hallam, Andrea Rava, Gregor
    Humar, Dennis Willsch, Fengping Jin, Madita Willsch, Kristel Michielsen, and Zlatko
    Papić. “Stirring the False Vacuum via Interacting Quantized Bubbles on a 5,564-Qubit
    Quantum Annealer.” <i>Nature Physics</i>. Springer Nature, 2025. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-024-02765-w">https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-024-02765-w</a>.
  ieee: J. Vodeb <i>et al.</i>, “Stirring the false vacuum via interacting quantized
    bubbles on a 5,564-qubit quantum annealer,” <i>Nature Physics</i>, vol. 21. Springer
    Nature, pp. 386–392, 2025.
  ista: Vodeb J, Desaules J-YM, Hallam A, Rava A, Humar G, Willsch D, Jin F, Willsch
    M, Michielsen K, Papić Z. 2025. Stirring the false vacuum via interacting quantized
    bubbles on a 5,564-qubit quantum annealer. Nature Physics. 21, 386–392.
  mla: Vodeb, Jaka, et al. “Stirring the False Vacuum via Interacting Quantized Bubbles
    on a 5,564-Qubit Quantum Annealer.” <i>Nature Physics</i>, vol. 21, Springer Nature,
    2025, pp. 386–92, doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-024-02765-w">10.1038/s41567-024-02765-w</a>.
  short: J. Vodeb, J.-Y.M. Desaules, A. Hallam, A. Rava, G. Humar, D. Willsch, F.
    Jin, M. Willsch, K. Michielsen, Z. Papić, Nature Physics 21 (2025) 386–392.
corr_author: '1'
date_created: 2025-02-06T10:07:13Z
date_published: 2025-03-01T00:00:00Z
date_updated: 2025-09-30T10:29:15Z
day: '01'
ddc:
- '530'
department:
- _id: MaSe
doi: 10.1038/s41567-024-02765-w
ec_funded: 1
external_id:
  arxiv:
  - '2406.14718'
  isi:
  - '001412684400001'
  pmid:
  - '40093970'
file:
- access_level: open_access
  checksum: b005ccf7448fee29c187cbc9b1944893
  content_type: application/pdf
  creator: dernst
  date_created: 2025-08-05T11:56:53Z
  date_updated: 2025-08-05T11:56:53Z
  file_id: '20127'
  file_name: 2025_NaturePhysics_Vodeb.pdf
  file_size: 2252107
  relation: main_file
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file_date_updated: 2025-08-05T11:56:53Z
has_accepted_license: '1'
intvolume: '        21'
isi: 1
language:
- iso: eng
month: '03'
oa: 1
oa_version: Published Version
page: 386-392
pmid: 1
project:
- _id: fc2ed2f7-9c52-11eb-aca3-c01059dda49c
  call_identifier: H2020
  grant_number: '101034413'
  name: 'IST-BRIDGE: International postdoctoral program'
publication: Nature Physics
publication_identifier:
  eissn:
  - 1745-2481
  issn:
  - 1745-2473
publication_status: published
publisher: Springer Nature
quality_controlled: '1'
related_material:
  link:
  - description: News on ISTA Website
    relation: press_release
    url: https://ista.ac.at/en/news/dancing-bubbles-model-a-cosmic-disaster/
scopus_import: '1'
status: public
title: Stirring the false vacuum via interacting quantized bubbles on a 5,564-qubit
  quantum annealer
tmp:
  image: /images/cc_by.png
  legal_code_url: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode
  name: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0)
  short: CC BY (4.0)
type: journal_article
user_id: 317138e5-6ab7-11ef-aa6d-ffef3953e345
volume: 21
year: '2025'
...