News Overview

STRUC­TURES Scientists Simulate Curved and Expanding Spacetime Using Ultracold Atoms

In a laboratory experiment, a team of STRUC­TURES researchers from CP 4 at Kirchhoff-Institute for Physics (KIP) and Institute for Theo­re­ti­cal Physics (ITP) have succeeded in realising an effective spacetime that is experimentally controllable. In their re­search with ultracold quan­tum gases of potassium, they were able to simulate an entire family of curved universes to investigate different cosmological scenarios and compare them with the predictions of a quan­tum field theo­re­ti­cal model. “For the wave-like excitations on the condensate, the propagation speed depends on the density and the interaction of the atoms. This gives us the opportunity to create conditions like those in an expanding, spatially curved universe,” explains Prof. Dr Stefan Flörchinger. The researcher, who previously worked at Hei­del­berg Uni­ver­si­ty and joined the Uni­ver­si­ty of Jena at the beginning of this year, elaborated the theo­re­ti­cal mapping of the atomic system to a noninteracting quan­tum field in a curved and expanding metric, which was used to benchmark the experimental results.

The success of this experiment shows that quan­tum field simulators offer the possibility to enter unexplored regimes in quan­tum cosmology. “Studying the interplay of curved spacetime and quan­tum mechanical states in the lab will keep us busy for some time to come,” says Prof. Dr Markus Oberthaler, head of the experimental group and STRUC­TURES speaker.

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