Cosmology in the laboratory: an analogy between hyperbolic metamaterials and the Milne universe

Abstract

This article shows that the compactified Milne universe geometry, a toy model for the big crunch/big bang transition, can be realized in hyperbolic metamaterials, a new class of nanoengineered systems which have recently found its way as an experimental playground for cosmological ideas. On one side, Klein-Gordon particles, as well as tachyons, are used as probes of the Milne geometry. On the other side, the propagation of light in two versions of a liquid crystal-based metamaterial provides the analogy. It is shown that ray and wave optics in the metamaterial mimic, respectively, the classical trajectories and wave function propagation, of the Milne probes, leading to the exciting perspective of realizing experimental tests of particle tunneling through the cosmic singularity, for instance.

arXiv comment12 pages, 9 figures

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Cited by in corpus (7)

• Quantum dynamics of scalar particles in the space-time of a cosmic string in the context of gravity's rainbow
• Schrödinger formalism for a particle constrained to a surface in ${\mathbb{R}}_1^3$
• Geometric theory of topological defects: methodological developments and new trends
• Implications of Kleinian relativity
• Optical concentrator from a hyperbolic liquid crystal metamaterial
• Mechanical cosmology: simulating scalar fluctuations in expanding Universes using synthetic mechanical lattices
• A simple light-trapping device from a hyperbolic metamaterial on a catenoid