Experimental Particle Production in Time-Dependent Spacetimes: A One-Dimensional Scattering Problem
We experimentally study cosmological particle production in a two-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensate, whose density excitations map to an analog cosmology. The expansion of spacetime is realized with tunable interactions. The particle spectrum can be understood through an analogy to quantum mechanical scattering, in which the dynamics of the spacetime metric determine the shape of the scattering potential. Hallmark scattering phenomena such as resonant forward scattering and Bragg reflection are connected to their cosmological counterparts, namely linearly expanding space and bouncing universes. We compare our findings to a theoretical description that extends beyond the acoustic approximation, which enables us to apply the model to high-momentum excitations.
Authors
- Markus K. Oberthaler (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8843-6364)
- Nikolas Liebster (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7839-5856)
- Mireia Tolosa-Simeón (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4032-0132)
- Marius Sparn (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8327-715X)
- Stefan Floerchinger (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3428-4625)
- Elinor Kath (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7652-1115)
- Christian F. Schmidt (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8033-6406)
- Helmut Strobel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4408-9177)
- Álvaro Parra-López (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5981-7195)
- Jelte Duchene
Institutions
- Universidad Complutense de Madrid (ES)
- Heidelberg University (DE)
- Friedrich Schiller University Jena (DE)
- Ruhr University Bochum (DE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Physical Review Letters
- Published
- 2024-12-24
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.133.260201
- Citations
- 7
- Primary Topic
- Cosmology and Gravitation Theories
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 2.32
Funders
- Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades
- European Commission
- European Cooperation in Science and Technology
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
- Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes
- Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación
- QuantERA
- Horizon 2020 Framework Programme