The fate of the false vacuum: Finite temperature, entropy and topological phase in quantum simulations of the early universe

Despite being at the heart of the theory of the “Big Bang”, the quantum field theory prediction of false vacuum tunneling has not been tested. We give a numerical feasibility study of a table-top BEC quantum simulator proposal for this effect under realistic conditions. We report the observation of false vacuum tunneling in computer simulations, and the formation of multiple bubble ’universes’ with distinct topological properties. The tunneling gives a transition of the relative phase of coupled Bose fields from a metastable to a stable ’vacuum’. We include the finite temperature effects of a laboratory experiment and also analyze modulational instabilities in Floquet space. Our numerical model uses an approximate truncated Wigner (tW) method. We analyze a nonlocal observable called the topological phase entropy (TPE). A cooperative effect occurs, in which the true vacua bubbles representing distinct universes each have one or the other of two distinct topologies. The TPE initially increases with time, reaching a peak as multiple universes are formed, and then decreases with time to the phase-ordered vacuum state. This gives a model for the formation of universes with one of two distinct phases, which is a possible solution to the problem of particle-antiparticle asymmetry.