Quantum gas unlocks the secrets of the universe's birth ⚡ экспресс
Researchers have proposed experimentally simulating cosmological perturbations using a Bose-Einstein condensate, taking into account both contact and dipole interactions. For the first time, they managed to capture the so-called trans-Planckian damping—the suppression of fluctuations at scales close to the Planck length. It was found that the scale invariance of the power spectrum is violated differently for an expanding and contracting universe, making it possible to distinguish early-universe models in the laboratory. Essentially, this opens a window into Planck-scale physics using a tabletop quantum gas.
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.