The phenomenon we are referring to is the “Bose nova” [175]. This is an experiment dealing with a gas
of a few million 85Rb atoms at a temperature of about 3 nK. The condensate is rendered unstable
by exploiting the possibility of tuning the interaction (more precisely the scattering length)
between the atoms via a magnetic field. Reversing the sign of the interaction, making it attractive,
destabilises the condensate. After a brief waiting time (generally called ), the condensate
implodes and loses a sizable fraction of its atoms in the form of a “nova burst”. If left to evolve
undisturbed, the number of atoms in the burst stabilises and a remnant condensate is left.
However, if the condensate interaction is again made repulsive after some time
, before the
condensate has sufficient time to stabilise, then the formation of “jets” of atoms is observed, these
jets being characterised by lower kinetic energy and a distinct shape with respect to the burst
emission.
Interestingly, an elegant explanation of such a phenomenology was proposed in [105, 106
], based on the
well-known semiclassical gravity analysis of particle creation in an expanding universe. In fact, the dynamics
of quantum excitations over the collapsing BEC were shown to closely mimic that for quantum excitations
in a time-reversed (collapsing instead of expanding) scenario for cosmological particle creation. This is
not so surprising as the quantum excitations above the BEC ground state feel a time-varying
background during the collapse, and, as a consequence, one then expects squeezing of the vacuum
state and mode mixing, which are characteristic of quantum field theory in variable external
fields.
However, the analogy is even deeper than this. In fact, in [105, 106
] a key role in explaining
the observed burst and jets is played by the concepts of “frozen” versus “oscillating” modes –
borrowed from cosmology – (although with a reverse dynamics with respect to the standard
(expanding) cosmological case). In the case of Bose novae, the modes, which are amplified, are those
for which the physical frequency is smaller than the collapse rate, while modes with higher
frequencies remain basically unaffected and their amplitudes obey a harmonic oscillator equation. As
the collapse rate decreases, more and more modes stop growing and start oscillating, which is
equivalent to a creation of particles from the quantum vacuum. In the case of a sudden stop of the
collapse by a new reversal of the sign of the interaction, all of the previously growing modes are
suddenly converted into particles, explaining in this way the generation of jets and their lower
energy (they correspond to modes with lower frequencies with respect to those generating the
bursts).
Although this simple model cannot explain all the details of the Bose novae phenomenology, we think it is remarkable how far it can go in explaining several observed features by exploiting the language and techniques so familiar to quantum cosmology. In this sense, the analysis presented in [105, 106] primarily shows a possible new application of analogue models, where they could be used to lend ideas and techniques developed in the context of gravitational physics to the explanation of condensed matter phenomena.
http://www.livingreviews.org/lrr-2011-3 |
Living Rev. Relativity 14, (2011), 3
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