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HandWiki. False Vacuum. Encyclopedia. Available online: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/30795 (accessed on 14 September 2026).
HandWiki. False Vacuum. Encyclopedia. Available at: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/30795. Accessed September 14, 2026.
HandWiki. "False Vacuum" Encyclopedia, https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/30795 (accessed September 14, 2026).
HandWiki. (2022, October 24). False Vacuum. In Encyclopedia. https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/30795
HandWiki. "False Vacuum." Encyclopedia. Web. 24 October, 2022.
False Vacuum
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In quantum field theory, a false vacuum is a hypothetical vacuum that is somewhat, but not entirely, stable. It may last for a very long time in that state, and might eventually move to a more stable state. The most common suggestion of how such a change might happen is called bubble nucleation – if a small region of the universe by chance reached a more stable vacuum, this "bubble" (also called "bounce") would spread. A false vacuum exists at a local minimum of energy and is therefore not stable, in contrast to a true vacuum, which exists at a global minimum and is stable. It may be very long-lived, or metastable.

bubble nucleation global minimum false vacuum

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