Quantum Simulations for analogue gravity systems and sensing with thin-film quantum liquids

A thin film of liquid helium, just a few atoms thick, will be used to mimic the fabric of spacetime itself. The researcher is building an imaging system—using off-axis digital holography and heterodyne interferometry—to observe tiny ripples, or surface mode excitations, on this superfluid film. These ripples behave like a scalar quantum field in a simulated (2+1) dimensional universe. The core goal is to build an analogue Unruh-DeWitt detector, a theoretical device that should register the Unruh effect—a prediction that an accelerating observer would see a warm bath of particles where a stationary one sees nothing. This effect has never been directly observed in real spacetime. The project also aims to simulate other cosmological phenomena, such as particle creation in an expanding universe. This is fundamental science, driven by curiosity about the deepest structure of reality. There is no immediate practical application. However, past fundamental research into quantum fluids and analogue gravity has sharpened our understanding of black hole thermodynamics and quantum field theory, and a working analogue detector could open new experimental windows into the intersection of quantum mechanics and general relativity.