Quantum state mimics gravitational waves

Amazing stuff!

"A quantum state in a lab has produced something which is mathematically indistinguishable from a phenomenon only ever witnessed when black holes collide: gravitational waves.
Scientists in Japan have proposed a new method for simulating gravitational waves in labs ..."

"... researchers ... have proposed a method for simulating gravitational waves on the laboratory bench through the quantum condensate of cold atoms."

From the abstract:

"Large-scale gravitational phenomena are famously difficult to observe, making parallels in condensed matter physics a valuable resource. Here we show how spin nematic phases, found in magnets and cold atoms, can provide an analog to linearized gravity. In particular, we show that the Goldstone modes of these systems are massless spin-2 bosons, in one-to-one correspondence with quantized gravitational waves in flat spacetime. We identify a spin-1 model supporting these excitations and, using simulation, outline a procedure for their observation in a 23⁢Na spinor condensate."

Quantum state mimics gravitational waves

Can quantum particles mimic gravitational waves? (original news release) "Researchers have shown how gravitational waves can be simulated in the lab using cold atoms."

Gravitational wave analogs in spin nematics and cold atoms (open access)

FIG. 1.

Quadrupolar nature of gravitational waves, and Goldstone modes of spin-nematic order, visualized through the associated distortions of spacetime, or the spin-nematic ground state.

FIG. 3.

Numerical simulation of vortices within a spin-nematic state, showing how quadrupole waves, analogous to gravitational waves, are created when a pair of vortices in-spiral and annihilate.