21–26 Jun 2026
U. Ottawa - Learning Crossroads (CRX) Building
America/Toronto timezone
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Emergent Spacetime Geometries in Bose–Einstein Condensates: From Spherical Refocusing to FLRW Analogues

22 Jun 2026, 15:15
15m
U. Ottawa - Learning Crossroads (CRX) Building

U. Ottawa - Learning Crossroads (CRX) Building

100 Louis-Pasteur Private, Ottawa, ON K1N 9N3
Oral Competition (Graduate Student) / Compétition orale (Étudiant(e) du 2e ou 3e cycle) Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics, Canada / Physique atomique, moléculaire et photonique, Canada (DAMOPC-DPAMPC) (DAMOPC) M2-3 | (DPAMPC)

Speaker

Jay Mehta (McMaster University)

Description

Atomic Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) provide a versatile platform for simulating curved spacetimes via their emergent acoustic metrics. By tailoring the trapping potential, one can realize inhomogeneous density profiles that generate effective geometries conformal to a sphere or a hyperboloid. In the spherical case, phonons follow closed geodesics and refocus at antipodal points, echoing the perfect refocusing found in certain optical systems. We show exact agreement between affine geodesics and ray dynamics in the geometric-optics limit. Beyond this static setting, the framework naturally extends to time-dependent couplings, yielding effective line elements equivalent to Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) cosmologies with tunable curvature. Using Gross-Pitaevskii simulations, we demonstrate the refocusing dynamics, test their robustness to perturbations, and compare with preliminary experimental data. This approach provides a concrete route to exploring analogue cosmology and wave dynamics in emergent spacetime backgrounds.

Keyword-1 Bose-Einstein Condensate
Keyword-2 Analogue Spacetime
Keyword-3 Quantum Dynamics

Author

Jay Mehta (McMaster University)

Co-authors

Dr Duncan O'Dell (McMaster University) Liam Farrell (McMaster University)

Presentation materials

There are no materials yet.