"Charged" phonons in an external field: a QED analog with Bose-Einstein condensates

TL;DR

This paper proposes using ultracold Bose-Einstein condensates to create an analog model of charged relativistic fields interacting with external gauge fields, enabling simulation of quantum field effects like pair creation.

Contribution

It introduces a novel analog model of scalar QED using BECs, allowing exploration of charged particle phenomena in a controlled laboratory setting.

Findings

Proposes a method to simulate charged phonons in BECs.

Enables study of QFT effects like Schwinger pair creation.

Provides a platform for investigating vacuum instability.

Abstract

We propose a method for using ultracold atomic Bose-Einstein condensates, to form an analog model of a relativistic massive field that carries "charge" and interacts with an external nondynamical gauge field. Such a "scalar QED" analog model, may be useful for simulating various effects of QFT involving charged particles, such as the Schwinger pair-creation of charged phonons in a constant external field, and vacuum instability.