The universe on a table top: engineering quantum decay of a relativistic scalar field from a metastable vacuum

Abstract

The quantum decay of a relativistic scalar field from a metastable state ("false vacuum decay") is a fundamental idea in quantum field theory and cosmology. This occurs via local formation of bubbles of true vacuum with their subsequent rapid expansion. It can be considered as a relativistic analog of a first-order phase transition in condensed matter. Here we expand upon our recent proposal [EPL 110, 56001 (2015)] for an experimental test of false vacuum decay using an ultra-cold spinor Bose gas. A false vacuum for the relative phase of two spin components, serving as the unstable scalar field, is generated by means of a modulated linear coupling of the spin components. We analyze the system theoretically using the functional integral approach and show that various microscopic degrees of freedom in the system, albeit leading to dissipation in the relative phase sector, will not hamper the observation of the false vacuum decay in the laboratory. This is well supported by numerical simulations demonstrating the spontaneous formation of true vacuum bubbles on millisecond time-scales in two-component ${}^7$Li or ${}^{41}$K bosonic condensates in one-dimensional traps of $\sim 100\mu \mathrm{m}$ size.

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Cited by in corpus (21)

• Effective picture of bubble expansion
• Real-time dynamics of false vacuum decay
• False vacuum decay in an ultracold spin-1 Bose gas
• Bubble Clustering in Cosmological First Order Phase Transitions
• Analog vacuum decay from vacuum initial conditions
• A nonperturbative test of nucleation calculations for strong phase transitions
• Mass Renormalization in Lattice Simulations of False Vacuum Decay
• False vacuum decay and nucleation dynamics in neutral atom systems
• Bubble velocities and oscillon precursors in first-order phase transitions
• Superfluids, Fluctuations and Disorder
• Generalized cold-atom simulators for vacuum decay
• Bubble nucleation in a cold spin 1 gas
• Parametrized Path Approach to Vacuum Decay
• Long-lived oscillations of metastable states in neutral atom systems
• Particle production and hadronization temperature in the massive Schwinger model
• Bubbles in a box: Eliminating edge nucleation in cold-atom simulators of vacuum decay
• Probing False Vacuum Decay and Bubble Nucleation in a Rydberg Atom Array
• Nondestructive optomechanical detection scheme for Bose-Einstein condensates
• Temperature driven false vacuum decay in coherently coupled Bose superfluids
• Inhomogeneous quantum quenches in the sine-Gordon theory
• Scalar field with a time-independent classical source, not trivial after all: from vacuum decay to scattering