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A first-of-its-kind experimentation simulating the cosmos with ultracold potassium atoms suggests that successful a curved, expanding beingness pairs of particles popular up retired of bare space
Physics 9 November 2022An experimentation with acold atoms suggests that particles popular up retired of bare space vitacop / Alamy Stock Photo
An analogue of a tiny, expanding beingness has been created retired of highly acold potassium atoms. It could beryllium utilized to assistance america recognize cosmic phenomena that are exceedingly hard to straight detect, specified arsenic pairs of particles that whitethorn beryllium created retired of bare abstraction arsenic the beingness expands.
Markus Oberthaler astatine Heidelberg University successful Germany and his colleagues cooled much than 20,000 potassium atoms successful a vacuum, utilizing lasers to dilatory them down and little their somesthesia to astir 60 nanokelvin, oregon 60 billionths of a grade kelvin supra implicit zero.
At this temperature, the atoms formed a unreality astir the width of a quality hairsbreadth and, alternatively of freezing, they became a quantum, fluid-like signifier of substance called a Bose-Einstein condensate. Atoms successful this signifier tin beryllium controlled by shining airy connected them – utilizing a tiny projector, the researchers precisely acceptable the atoms’ density, statement successful abstraction and the forces they exert connected each other.
By changing these properties, the squad made the atoms travel an equation called a space-time metric, which, successful an actual, full-scale universe, determines however curved it is, however accelerated airy travels and however overmuch airy indispensable crook adjacent precise monolithic objects. This is the archetypal experimentation that has utilized acold atoms to simulate a curved and expanding universe, says Oberthaler.
When the researchers utilized their projector to marque atoms mimic an expanding universe, the atoms moved successful precisely the benignant of ripple signifier that would beryllium expected if pairs of particles were popping into beingness – a improvement called particle brace production. The researchers accidental this suggests that the particle pairs tin beryllium produced successful an expanding universe, similar our own.
Alessio Celi astatine the Autonomous University of Barcelona successful Spain says that the caller experimentation is simply a precise precise playground for putting unneurotic quantum effects and gravity. Physicists don’t rather cognize how the 2 combine successful the beingness we unrecorded in, but experiments with ultracold atoms whitethorn fto them effort retired immoderate ideas, and they could animate caller targets for observations successful our overmuch larger and much analyzable cosmos, helium says.
Stefan Floerchinger astatine the University of Jena successful Germany, who was portion of the probe team, says that aboriginal experiments with the aforesaid strategy could pb to a amended knowing of quantum properties of our universe.
Journal reference: Nature, DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05313-9
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