Maria Chiara Braidotti, Martino Lovisetto, Radivoje Prizia, Claire Michel, Clamond Didier, Matthieu Bellec, Ewan M. Wright, Bruno Marcos, Daniele Faccio
{"title":"Experimental observation of violent relaxation","authors":"Maria Chiara Braidotti, Martino Lovisetto, Radivoje Prizia, Claire Michel, Clamond Didier, Matthieu Bellec, Ewan M. Wright, Bruno Marcos, Daniele Faccio","doi":"10.1038/s42005-024-01684-9","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Structures in the Universe, ranging from globular clusters to entire galaxies, are not described by standard statistical mechanics at equilibrium. Instead, they are formed through a process of a very different nature, called violent relaxation that is now known to be possible also in other systems that exhibit long-range interactions. This mechanism was proposed theoretically and modelled numerically, but never directly observed in any physical system. Here, we develop a table-top experiment allowing us to directly observe violent relaxation in an optical setting. The resulting optical dynamics can also be likened to the formation of an analogue 2D-galaxy through the analogy of the underlying equations, where we can control a range of parameters, including the nonlocal interacting potential, allowing us to emulate the physics of gravitational quantum and classical dark matter models. Large structure in the Universe, such as galaxies, are believed to form by a process called violent relaxation, which occurs over millions of years. The authors present a nonlinear optics experiment which shows direct observation of violent relaxation, whose evolution can be related to the equations governing galaxy formation.","PeriodicalId":10540,"journal":{"name":"Communications Physics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":5.4000,"publicationDate":"2024-06-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s42005-024-01684-9.pdf","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Communications Physics","FirstCategoryId":"101","ListUrlMain":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s42005-024-01684-9","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"PHYSICS, MULTIDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Structures in the Universe, ranging from globular clusters to entire galaxies, are not described by standard statistical mechanics at equilibrium. Instead, they are formed through a process of a very different nature, called violent relaxation that is now known to be possible also in other systems that exhibit long-range interactions. This mechanism was proposed theoretically and modelled numerically, but never directly observed in any physical system. Here, we develop a table-top experiment allowing us to directly observe violent relaxation in an optical setting. The resulting optical dynamics can also be likened to the formation of an analogue 2D-galaxy through the analogy of the underlying equations, where we can control a range of parameters, including the nonlocal interacting potential, allowing us to emulate the physics of gravitational quantum and classical dark matter models. Large structure in the Universe, such as galaxies, are believed to form by a process called violent relaxation, which occurs over millions of years. The authors present a nonlinear optics experiment which shows direct observation of violent relaxation, whose evolution can be related to the equations governing galaxy formation.
期刊介绍:
Communications Physics is an open access journal from Nature Research publishing high-quality research, reviews and commentary in all areas of the physical sciences. Research papers published by the journal represent significant advances bringing new insight to a specialized area of research in physics. We also aim to provide a community forum for issues of importance to all physicists, regardless of sub-discipline.
The scope of the journal covers all areas of experimental, applied, fundamental, and interdisciplinary physical sciences. Primary research published in Communications Physics includes novel experimental results, new techniques or computational methods that may influence the work of others in the sub-discipline. We also consider submissions from adjacent research fields where the central advance of the study is of interest to physicists, for example material sciences, physical chemistry and technologies.