Emergent quantum field theories on curved spacetimes in spinor Bose-Einstein condensates: from scalar to Proca fields

TL;DR

This paper explores how spinor Bose-Einstein condensates can simulate emergent relativistic quantum fields on curved spacetimes, including scalar and Proca fields, with potential applications in quantum cosmology simulations.

Contribution

It introduces a framework for mapping spinor BEC excitations to various quantum field theories on curved spacetimes, including bi- and tri-metric geometries and Proca fields.

Findings

Bi-metricity in polar and antiferromagnetic phases

Proca fields emerge as spin-nematic rotation modes

Spacetime-dependent Zeeman couplings enable FLRW metric simulation

Abstract

We consider excitations of a spin-1 Bose-Einstein-condensate (BEC) in the vicinity of different mean-field configurations and derive mappings to emergent relativistic quantum field theories minimally coupled to curved acoustic spacetimes. The quantum fields are typically identified with Nambu-Goldstone bosons, such that the structure of the analogue quantum field theories on curved spacetimes depends on the (spontaneous) symmetry breaking pattern of the respective ground-state. The emergent spacetime geometries are independent of each other and exhibit bi-metricity in the polar and antiferromagnetic phase, whereas one has tri-metricity in the ferromagnetic phase. Compared to scalar BECs, the spinor degrees of freedom allow to investigate massive vector and scalar fields where the former is a spin-nematic rotation mode in the polar phase which can be cast into a Proca field that is minimally coupled to a curved spacetime that emerges on length scales larger than the spin-healing length. Finally, we specify the Zeeman couplings and the condensate trap to be spacetime-dependent such that a cosmological FLRW-metric can be achieved. This work enables a pathway towards quantum-simulating cosmological particle production of Proca quanta via quenching the quadratic Zeeman-coefficient or via magnetic field ramps, which both result in the creation of spin-nematic squeezed states.