arXiv:1002.4408v2 [hep-th] 10 Jun 2010 Bubbles of Nothing in Flux Compactifications Jose J. Blanco-Pillado and Benjamin Shlaer Institute of Cosmology, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Tufts University, Medford, MA 02155, USA Abstract We construct a simple AdS$_{4}$ × S 1 flux compactification stabilized by a complex scalar field winding the single extra dimension and demonstrate an instability to nucleation of a bubble of nothing. This occurs when the Kaluza – Klein dimension degenerates to a point, defining the bubble surface. Because the extra dimension is stabilized by a flux, the bubble surface must be charged, in this case under the axionic part of the complex scalar. This smooth geometry can be seen as a de Sitter topological defect with asymptotic behavior identical to the pure compactification. We discuss how a similar construction can be implemented in more general Freund – Rubin compactifications.