Barontini Defines Time in 20,000-Atom Toy Universe, Suggesting It Emerges From Quantum Interactions
Updated
Updated · New Scientist · Jun 11
Barontini Defines Time in 20,000-Atom Toy Universe, Suggesting It Emerges From Quantum Interactions
1 articles · Updated · New Scientist · Jun 11
Summary
Using about 20,000 ultracold rubidium atoms, Giovanni Barontini built a two-sector “toy universe” and derived an internal clock after lasers drove quantum exchanges between its bright and dark parts.
Those exchanges increased entropy, letting Barontini define time from the system’s own evolution rather than imposing it externally; plugging that time into the Schrödinger equation reproduced the observed quantum states.
The result extends earlier work on time emerging from quantum correlations, including a 2013 light-particle experiment, and researchers said the cold-atom setup is a more complex test that had not previously made Schrödinger dynamics work this way.
Physicists said the experiment speaks to efforts to reconcile quantum theory with gravity, where some proposals remove time from the deepest level of reality, though critics cautioned that a lab-built model cannot prove how time works in the actual cosmos.
Barontini called the study an experimental check on long-standing ideas rather than proof that time is fundamentally illusory, and said he next wants to add black-hole-like trapping regions to the ultracold system.
Could scientists build a 'timeless bubble' by stopping the quantum interactions described in this experiment?
If time is a quantum illusion, does this mean the past and future exist simultaneously?
Experimental Proof That Time Emerges from Quantum Interactions: The 2026 Barontini "Mini-Universe" Breakthrough
Overview
In June 2026, Professor Giovanni Barontini and his team at the University of Birmingham made a groundbreaking discovery by showing that time can emerge from the internal interactions within a quantum system. Their experiment created a controlled 'mini-universe' where time, called entropic time, was not an external force but arose naturally from the system's own dynamics. This entropic time displayed all the features of ordinary time, such as a clear direction and consistent flow, challenging the traditional view that time is a fundamental, independent dimension. The findings offer new insight into the true nature of time and its origins.