English

Acoustic metric and Planck constants

Other Condensed Matter 2023-04-12 v3 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology High Energy Physics - Phenomenology

Abstract

Based on Akama-Diakonov (AK) theory of emergent tetrads, it was suggested\cite{Volovik2023b} that one can introduce two Planck constants, which are the parameters of the corresponding components of Minkowski metric. In the AK theory, the interval dsds is dimensionless, as a result the metric elements and thus the Planck constants have nonzero dimensions. The Planck constant \hbar has dimension of time, and the second Planck constant \hslash has dimension of length. It is natural to compare \hslash with the Planck length lPl_{\rm P}, which is related to the Newton constant as lP2=Gl_{\rm P}^2= \hslash G. However, this connection remains an open question, because the microscopic (trans-Planckian) physics of the quantum vacuum is not known. Here we study this question using the effective gravity emerging for sound wave quanta (phonons) in superfluid Bose liquid, such as 4^4He, where the microscopic physics is known: it is atomic physics. The elements of the effective acoustic metric are determined by the parameters of this Bose liquid, and as in the AK theory, the interval dsds is dimensionless. One may introduce the effective "acoustic Planck constants" as elements of acoustic metric, gacμν=diag(ac2,ac2,ac2,ac2)g^{\mu\nu}_{\rm ac}= {\rm diag}(-\hbar_{\rm ac}^2,\hslash_{\rm ac}^2,\hslash_{\rm ac}^2,\hslash_{\rm ac}^2). Then one obtains that the acoustic Planck constant ac\hslash_{\rm ac} has dimension of length, and in liquid helium it is on the order of the interatomic distance in this liquid, aca\hslash_{\rm ac} \sim a. This supports the scenario in which the Planck constant in the relativistic quantum vacuum is on the order of the Planck length, lPG\hslash\sim l_{\rm P} \sim G. We also use the acoustic metric for consideration of the possible dependence of the Planck constant on the Hubble parameter in expanding Universe.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2302.08894,
  title  = {Acoustic metric and Planck constants},
  author = {G. E. Volovik},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2302.08894},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

10 pages, no figures, version accepted in JETP Letters

R2 v1 2026-06-28T08:42:47.242Z