Curved spacetime from interacting gauge theories

Butera, S. , Westerberg, N. , Faccio, D. and Öhberg, P. (2019) Curved spacetime from interacting gauge theories. Classical and Quantum Gravity, 36(3), 034002. (doi: 10.1088/1361-6382/aaf9f6)

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Abstract

Phonons in a Bose–Einstein condensate can be made to behave as if they propagate in curved spacetime by controlling the condensate flow speed. Seemingly disconnected to this, artificial gauge potentials can be induced in charge neutral atomic condensates by for instance coupling two atomic levels to a laser field. In this work, we connect these two worlds and show that synthetic interacting gauge fields, i.e. density-dependent gauge potentials, induce a non-trivial spacetime structure for the phonons. Whilst the creation of effective horizons for phonons solely depends on the flow speed of the condensate, this allows for the creation of new spacetime geometries which can be easily designed by tuning the transverse laser phase. By exploiting this new degree of freedom we show that effectively charged phonons in 2+1 dimensions can be simulated, which behave as if they move under the influence of both a gravitational and an electromagnetic field.

Item Type:Articles
Additional Information:SB gratefully acknowledges financial support by the Julian Schwinger Foundation. NW acknowledges support from the EPSRC CM-CDT Grant EP/L015110/1, PÖ acknowledges support from EPSRC EP/M024636/1. DF acknowledges financial support from the European Research Council under the European Unions Seventh Framework Programme (FP/20072013)/ ERC GA 306559 and the EPSRC (Grant EP/P006078/2).
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Faccio, Professor Daniele and Butera, Dr Salvatore and Westerberg, Dr Niclas
Authors: Butera, S., Westerberg, N., Faccio, D., and Öhberg, P.
College/School:College of Science and Engineering > School of Physics and Astronomy
Journal Name:Classical and Quantum Gravity
Publisher:Institute of Physics
ISSN:0264-9381
ISSN (Online):1361-6382
Published Online:19 December 2018
Copyright Holders:Copyright © 2019 IOP Publishing Ltd
First Published:First published in Classical and Quantum Gravity 36(3): 034002
Publisher Policy:Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy

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Project CodeAward NoProject NamePrincipal InvestigatorFunder's NameFunder RefLead Dept
303021Black Hole Superradiance in Rotating Fluids (SURF)Daniele FaccioEngineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)EP/P006078/2P&S - Physics & Astronomy