Quantum field simulator for dynamics in curved spacetime

The Timescales of Quantum Breaking

“…The analogies of gravity with much simpler non-relativistic systems open up an intriguing prospect of answering long-standing questions about black holes and de Sitter in table-top experiments. Analogue models that focus on geometry have already been realized experimentally both for black holes [169][170][171] and for cosmology [172][173][174][175][176] (see also ref. [177]).…”

Petrov classification of analogue spacetimes

“…where ρ (0) is the fluid density ρ of the background, c 2 s(0) = dp dρ | ρ=ρ (0) is the sound speed associated to this background, and p = p(ρ) is the barotropic equation of state of the fluid. We emphasize that all variables in (15) for this physical metric as well as in the metrics below depend on the three-dimensional position space coordinates and on time, unless otherwise specified.…”

“…This has been coined the acoustic metric in the geometric limit [3]. Using a tilde to denote the geometric limit being taken by removing the conformal factor from (15),…”

“…As a result, with recent advances in experimental capabilities in particular for quantum gases, the Hawking radiation effect for sonic black holes [5] has been observed in a Bose-Einstein Condensate [6,7], with further intriguing prospects of an interplay of theory and experiment opening up also, e.g. in the context of quantum cosmology [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15].…”

Expanding Universe in the Lab

“…How those fields evolved in the curved spacetime of an inflating Universe is still an open question whose solution may help scientists understand how particles came into existence. Researchers at Heidelberg University, Germany, have now produced an analog system for studying these fields [1]. In a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) of ultracold atoms, they demonstrate properties that map to curved space and time, providing a new tool for simulating quantum field evolution in an expanding universe.…”