Photon Bubble Turbulence in Cold Atom Gases

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates photon bubble turbulence in cold atom gases, providing a controllable laboratory model to simulate astrophysical radiation-dominated systems and developing a theoretical framework for their coupled dynamics.

Contribution

It introduces the first experimental observation of photon bubble turbulence in cold atoms and presents a theoretical model describing their coupled photon-atom dynamics.

Findings

Identification of photon bubble instability in cold atom clouds

Development of a theoretical model matching experimental turbulence statistics

Potential to simulate astrophysical radiation processes in laboratory settings

Abstract

Turbulent radiation flow is commonplace in systems with strong, incoherent, light-matter interactions. In astrophysical contexts, photon bubble turbulence is considered a key mechanism behind enhanced radiation transport, and its importance has been widely asserted for a variety of high energy objects such as accretion disks and massive stars. We demonstrate here that analogous conditions to those of dense astrophysical objects can be obtained in large clouds of cold atoms driven close to a sharp electronic resonance. By accessing the spatially-resolved atom density, we are able to identify a photon bubble instability and the resulting regime of photon bubble turbulence. We also develop a theoretical model describing the coupled dynamics of both photon and atom gases, which accurately describes the statistical properties of the turbulent regime. This study thus opens the possibility of simulating radiation-dominated astrophysical systems in cold atom experiments.