Simulating inflationary cosmological models in synthetic mechanical lattices

Inspired by continued explorations in the field of analog gravity, we discuss the prospect of simulating models of inflationary cosmology within the context of synthetic mechanical lattice experiments. We focus on the dynamics of scalar fields subject to a Friedmann–Lemaître–Robertson–Walker (FLRW) metric, which describes the early expanding universe, and consider expansion scenarios driven by radiation, matter, and dark energy. Specifically, quantizing curvature perturbations about the FLRW metric leads to a quadratic bosonic Hamiltonian with temporally varying pair production terms. We demonstrate how such dynamics can naturally be simulated in the setting of synthetic mechanical lattices and discuss the results of our simulations.