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What if Time Isn’t Fundamental? Physicists Just Tested the Idea in the Lab

Researchers used 24,000 ultracold atoms to simulate a miniature universe. The experiment suggests time may not be fundamental but emerges from entropy changes within a system. The study was published in Physical Review Research.

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New experimental data from a quantum mini-universe suggests time is an emergent property.

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  1. Physicists Create Quantum Mini-Universe to Test Nature of Time

    Researchers used 24,000 ultracold atoms to simulate a miniature universe. The experiment suggests time may not be fundamental but emerges from entropy changes within a system. The study was published in Physical Review Research.

    What's confirmed:

    • A quantum mini-universe was created using 24,000 ultracold atoms.
    • The experiment indicates that time can emerge from entropy changes inside a system.
    • The study was published in the journal Physical Review Research.

    Still unconfirmed:

    • Professor Giovanni Barontini led the experiment at the University of Birmingham.
    • The atoms were separated by a thin barrier of two different frequency laser beams.
    • The system involved a bright region that repeatedly expands and contracts.
    • A Bose-Einstein Condensate evolved across 44 cycles of recollapse.
    • Time could be a quantum illusion.
    • Quantum collapse models imply fundamental time uncertainty linked to gravity.
    confidence 90%