Analog cosmology with two-fluid systems in a strong gradient magnetic field

Fifer, Zack; Torres, Theo; Erne, Sebastian; Avgoustidis, Anastasios; Hill, Richard J. A.; Weinfurtner, Silke

Abstract

We propose an experiment combining fluid dynamics and strong magnetic field physics to simulate cosmological scenarios. Our proposed system consists of two immiscible, weakly magnetized fluids moved through a strong gradient magnetic field. The diamagnetic and paramagnetic forces thus generated amount to a time-dependent effective gravity, which allows us to precisely control the propagation speed of interface waves. Perturbations on the interface therefore experience a nonstationary effective metric. In what follows, we demonstrate that our proposed system is capable of simulating a variety of cosmological models. We then present a readily realizable experimental setup which will allow us to capture the essential dynamics of standard inflation, wherein interface perturbations experience a shrinking effective horizon and are shown to transition from oscillatory to frozen and squeezed regimes at horizon crossing.

Citation

Fifer, Z., Torres, T., Erne, S., Avgoustidis, A., Hill, R. J. A., & Weinfurtner, S. (2019). Analog cosmology with two-fluid systems in a strong gradient magnetic field. Physical Review E, 99(3), Article 031101(R). https://doi.org/10.1103/physreve.99.031101

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 11, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Mar 27, 2019
• Publication Date: Mar 27, 2019
• Deposit Date: May 1, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: May 1, 2019
• Journal: Physical Review E
• Print ISSN: 2470-0045
• Electronic ISSN: 2470-0053
• Publisher: American Physical Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 99
• Issue: 3
• Article Number: 031101(R)
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/physreve.99.031101
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2003673
• Publisher URL: https://journals.aps.org/pre/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevE.99.031101