Quantum gas unlocks the secrets of the universe's birth ⚡ экспресс
An experimental simulation of cosmological perturbations governed by Lorentz-violating dispersion induced at the Planck scale is proposed, with the aim of distinguishing early-universe models that have similar power spectra. Using a novel scaling method for the evolution of a Bose-Einstein condensate with contact and dipole interactions, the effect of trans-Planckian damping has been recorded for the first time. It is shown that scale invariance, and as a consequence the duality of the power spectrum, is violated at high momenta for an expanding gas and at low momenta for a contracting one. This provides a Planck-physics-sensitive method for analogue quantum cosmology, which could be implemented in quantum gas laboratories.
To peer 14 billion years into the past, you don’t need a telescope—just a cloud of atoms chilled to near absolute zero. In the Bose–Einstein condensate state, discovered by Bose and Einstein, atoms merge into a giant synchronized wave. By tuning magnetism, scientists turn this wave into a tiny “pond” that models spacetime right after the Big Bang—complete with its ripples of primordial inhomogeneities. The key discovery: when the “pond” expands (like our universe), small ripples vanish without a trace, and when it contracts, large ones disappear. This “Planckian damping” breaks symmetry: contrary to expectations, ripples are not the same at all scales. This effect is a direct consequence of spacetime ceasing to be smooth at the smallest scales (where curvature plays a role). For the first time, a lab trick allows us to distinguish the inflationary theory of Alan Guth from other scenarios and peek beyond the Standard Model without giant accelerators. The temperature of this “cosmos” is a hundred million times lower than the interstellar void: the slightest heat would destroy the entire simulation.
🎯 The gas is cooled to a few billionths of a degree above absolute zero—so cold that even the cosmic microwave background, cooled after the Big Bang, feels hot.