AI 中文总结
本研究基于均匀平面原子玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚体模拟正弦-戈登场，直接观测到玻色量子场的空间真空涨落，为模拟理论难处理的相对论场提供了新途径。
AI 中文摘要
海森堡不确定性会导致量子力学可观测量的测量结果出现不可避免的涨落。对于量子场而言，即便场处于基态（真空），这些不确定性也会在其快照中形成随机空间结构。这类“真空涨落”是众多现象的核心，从自发衰变过程到卡西米尔力、霍金辐射均与之相关；它们的存在是物理世界量子性的关键体现，但通常只有其效应会被直接观测到。本研究直接观测玻色量子场的空间真空涨落，实验基于均匀平面原子玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚体，该凝聚体包含两个相干耦合的相互作用组分（自旋态），量子场描述其自旋自由度。在相互作用主导相干耦合的区域，该系统模拟了（有质量相对论性）正弦-戈登场。场的图像显示不同长度尺度上同时存在涨落，且其尺度相关振幅与真空态的理论预测一致。在正弦-戈登极限下观测此类涨落，为实验室模拟当前理论难以处理的相对论场区域开辟了诸多可能性。
英文摘要
Heisenberg uncertainties lead to inevitable fluctuations in the measurement outcomes for quantum-mechanical observables. For quantum fields, these uncertainties result in random spatial structures in snapshots of a field, even when the field is in its ground (vacuum) state. Such `vacuum fluctuations' are at the heart of a wide range of phenomena, from spontaneous decay processes to the Casimir force and Hawking radiation. Their existence is a key manifestation of the quantumness of the physical world, but usually it is only their consequences that are directly observed. Here, we directly observe spatial vacuum fluctuations of a bosonic quantum field. Our experiments are based on a homogeneous planar atomic Bose--Einstein condensate. The condensate comprises two coherently coupled interacting components (spin states), and the quantum field describes its spin degrees of freedom. In the regime where the interactions dominate over the coherent coupling, our system emulates a (massive relativistic) sine-Gordon field. Images of the field reveal simultaneous fluctuations on different length scales, with scale-dependent amplitudes consistent with theoretical predictions for a vacuum state. Observing such fluctuations in the sine-Gordon limit opens many possibilities for laboratory simulations of relativistic fields in regimes that are presently not theoretically tractable.
Comments7 pages, 3 figures
