corner
corner

Phys. Rev. A 76, 033616 (2007) [24 pages]

Analog model of a Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universe in Bose-Einstein condensates: Application of the classical field method

Download: PDF (890 kB) Buy this article Export: BibTeX or EndNote (RIS)

Piyush Jain*
School of Chemical and Physical Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand

Silke Weinfurtner and Matt Visser
School of Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand

C. W. Gardiner§
The Jack Dodd and Dan Walls Centre for Photonics and Ultra Cold Atoms, Department of Physics, Otago University, Dunedin, New Zealand

Received 23 May 2007; published 20 September 2007

Analog models of gravity have been motivated by the possibility of investigating phenomena not readily accessible in their cosmological counterparts. In this paper, we investigate the analog of cosmological particle creation in a Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universe by numerically simulating a Bose-Einstein condensate with a time-dependent scattering length. In particular, we focus on a two-dimensional homogeneous condensate using the classical field method via the truncated Wigner approximation. We show that for various forms of the scaling function the particle production is consistent with the underlying theory in the long wavelength limit. In this context, we further discuss the implications of modified dispersion relations that arise from the microscopic theory of a weakly interacting Bose gas.

© 2007 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevA.76.033616
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevA.76.033616
PACS:
03.75.Kk, 04.62.+v

*piyushnz@gmail.com

silke.weinfurtner@mcs.vuw.ac.nz

matt.visser@mcs.vuw.ac.nz

§gardiner@physics.otago.ac.nz