Aspects of cosmic inflation in expanding Bose-Einstein condensates

Abstract

Phonons in expanding Bose-Einstein condensates with wavelengths much larger than the healing length behave in the same way as quantum fields within a universe undergoing an accelerated expansion. This analogy facilitates the application of many tools and concepts known from general relativity (such as horizons) and the prediction of the corresponding effects such as the freezing of modes after horizon crossing and the associated amplification of quantum fluctuations. Basically the same amplification mechanism is (according to our standard model of cosmology) supposed to be responsible for the generation of the initial inhomogeneities - and hence the seeds for the formation of structures such as our galaxy - during cosmic inflation (i.e., a very early epoch in the evolution of our universe). After a general discussion of the analogy (analogue cosmology), we calculate the frozen and amplified density-density fluctuations for quasi-two-dimensional (Q2D) and three-dimensional (3D) condensates which undergo a free expansion after switching off the (longitudinal) trap. © IOP Publishing Ltd and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft.