Simulating an Expanding Universe in a Quantum Droplet.

Researchers at Heidelberg University have used a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) to simulate an expanding universe and certain quantum fields within it, allowing for the study of important cosmological scenarios. The BEC was used as the "universe" part of the simulator, and phonons, quantized packets of sound energy moving through the fluid, served as analogues to photons and other quantum fields fluctuating in the actual universe. The researchers hope to use these tools to peer back into the earliest moments of the universe and probe the hypothesis that the universe’s large-scale structure has a quantum origin.