Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Optical physics

A laser model for cosmology

Nature volume 549, pages 163–164 (2017)Cite this article

Subjects

Experiments reveal that the laws governing the immediate aftermath of the Big Bang also apply to the behaviour of coupled lasers. The findings could be used to solve complex computational problems.

Many thousands of papers have been published involving lasers, yet it is amazing how many surprises these devices can still deliver. Pal et al.1 report a particularly intriguing example in Physical Review Letters: when several lasers are coupled together, they can give rise to physics that might have had a role in the earliest stages of our Universe's development.

This is a preview of subscription content

Access options

Buy article

Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.

$32.00

Buy

All prices are NET prices.

Figure 1: Coupled lasers in a laser cavity.

Notes

  1. See all news & views

References

  1. Pal, V., Tradonsky, C., Chriki, R., Friesem, A. A. & Davidson, N. Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 013902 (2017).

    ADS  Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Kibble, T. W. B. J. Phys. Math. Gen. 9, 1387 (1976).

    ADS  Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Zurek, W. H. Nature 317, 505–508 (1985).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Hendry, P. C., Lawson, N. S., Lee, R. A. M., McClintock, P. V. E. & Williams, C. D. H. Nature 368, 315–317 (1994).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Bowick, M. J., Chandar, L., Schiff, E. A. & Srivastava, A. M. Science 263, 943–945 (1994).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Arecchi, F. T., Giacomelli, G., Ramazza, P. L. & Residori, S. Phys. Rev. Lett. 67, 3749–3752 (1991).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Marandi, A., Wang, Z., Takata, K., Byer, R. L. & Yamamoto, Y. Nature Photon. 8, 937–942 (2014).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Liertzer, M. et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 173901 (2012).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. the Institute for Theoretical Physics, Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien), Vienna, 1040, Austria

    Stefan Rotter

Authors
  1. Stefan Rotter
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Stefan Rotter.

Related links

Related links

Related links in Nature Research

Optical physics: One ring to multiplex them all

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Rotter, S. A laser model for cosmology. Nature 549, 163–164 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/549163a

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/549163a

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing