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.

  • NEWS AND VIEWS

Superfluid system hosts early-Universe dynamics

A fluid of ultracold atoms has exhibited quantum dynamics similar to those thought to have existed moments after the Big Bang — ushering in a new era of laboratory exploration of the early Universe.
  1. Silke Weinfurtner

    1. Silke Weinfurtner is in the School of Mathematical Sciences, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

The idea that the early Universe underwent a phase of rapid inflation was originally proposed to address some of the outstanding puzzles of the Big Bang1. But scientists soon realized that this theory of inflation could also explain the very origin of the Universe’s cosmic structure2. Like all events that occurred in the early Universe, the inflationary phase has long been inaccessible to direct experiments, but that doesn’t necessarily preclude exploration of the physics involved. Writing in Nature, Viermann et al.3 report a set of neat laboratory experiments that offer a peek at a small segment of inflationary history by examining the dynamics in a system of supercooled potassium-39 atoms.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 611, 238-239 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-03557-z

References

  1. Guth, A. H. Phys. Rev. D 23, 347–356 (1981).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Bardeen, J. M., Steinhardt, P. J. & Turner, M. S. Phys. Rev. D 28, 679–693 (1983).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Viermann, C. et al. Nature 611, 260–264 (2022).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Stamper-Kurn, D. M. et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 83, 2876–2879 (1999).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Barceló, C., Liberati, S. & Visser, M. Int. J. Mod. Phys. D 12, 1641–1649 (2003).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Unruh, W. G. Phys. Rev. Lett. 46, 1351–1353 (1981).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Barcelo, C., Liberati, S. & Visser, M. Living Rev. Relativ. 14, 3 (2011).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Weinfurtner, S. Gen. Relativ. Grav. 37, 1549–1554 (2005).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Jacquet, M. J., Weinfurtner, S. & König, F. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A 378, 20190239 (2020).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Jain, P., Weinfurtner, S., Visser, M. & Gardiner, C. W. Phys. Rev. A 76, 033616 (2007).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Fedichev, P. O. & Fischer, U. R. Phys. Rev. A 69, 033602 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Eckel, S., Kumar, A., Jacobson, T., Spielman, I. B. & Campbell, G. K. Phys. Rev. X 8, 021021 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Steinhauer, J. et al. Nature Commun. 13, 2890 (2022).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Fifer, Z. et al. Phys. Rev. E 99, 031101 (2019).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Fialko, O. et al. Europhys. Lett. 110, 56001 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Braden, J., Johnson, M. C., Peiris, H. V. & Weinfurtner, S. J. High Energy Phys. 2018, 14 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Kofman, L., Linde, A. & Starobinsky, A. A. Phys. Rev. Lett. 73, 3195–3198 (1994).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Barroso, V. S. et al. Preprint at https://arxiv.org/abs/2207.02199 (2022).

Download references

Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

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

Search

Advanced search

Quick links