Fate of the false vacuum: towards realization with ultra-cold atoms

TL;DR

This paper proposes a laboratory experiment using ultra-cold spinor Bose gases to simulate quantum decay from a false vacuum, providing insights into early Universe phenomena like bubble nucleation and inflation.

Contribution

It introduces a novel experimental model for simulating false vacuum decay using ultra-cold atoms, bridging quantum field theory and laboratory physics.

Findings

Numerical simulations show spontaneous true vacuum bubble formation.

Realistic parameters enable observable false vacuum decay.

The model offers a controllable platform for studying early Universe processes.

Abstract

Quantum decay of a relativistic scalar field from a false vacuum is a fundamental idea in quantum field theory. It is relevant to models of the early Universe, where the nucleation of bubbles gives rise to an inflationary universe and the creation of matter. Here we propose a laboratory test using an experimental model of an ultra-cold spinor Bose gas. A false vacuum for the relative phase of two spin components, serving as the unstable scalar field, is generated by means of a modulated radio-frequency coupling of the spin components. Numerical simulations demonstrate the spontaneous formation of true vacuum bubbles with realistic parameters and time-scales.