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Bubbles in a box: Eliminating edge nucleation in cold-atom simulators of vacuum decay

Alexander C. Jenkins1,2,*, Hiranya V. Peiris1,3,4, and Andrew Pontzen5

  • 1Kavli Institute for Cosmology, University of Cambridge, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HA, United Kingdom
  • 2DAMTP, University of Cambridge, Wilberforce Road, Cambridge CB3 0WA, United Kingdom
  • 3Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HA, United Kingdom
  • 4The Oskar Klein Centre for Cosmoparticle Physics, Department of Physics, Stockholm University, AlbaNova, Stockholm 106 91, Sweden
  • 5Institute for Computational Cosmology, Department of Physics, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, United Kingdom

  • *Contact author: acj46@cam.ac.uk
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Phys. Rev. A 112, 023318 – Published 19 August, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/lrc6-49q1

Abstract

The decay of metastable false-vacuum states via bubble nucleation plays a crucial role in many cosmological scenarios. Cold-atom analog experiments will soon provide the first empirical probes of this process, with potentially far-reaching implications for early-universe cosmology and high-energy physics. However, an inevitable difference between these analog systems and the early universe is that the former have a boundary. We show, using a combination of Euclidean calculations and real-time lattice simulations, that these boundaries generically cause rapid bubble nucleation on the edge of the experiment, obscuring the bulk nucleation that is relevant for cosmology. We demonstrate that implementing a high-density trench region at the boundary completely eliminates this problem and recovers the desired cosmological behavior. Our findings are relevant for ongoing efforts to probe vacuum decay in the laboratory, providing a practical solution to a key experimental obstacle.

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Phys. Rev. A 112, 023318– Published 19 August, 2025
  • Received 10 April 2025
  • Accepted 29 July 2025
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