Barontini Demonstrates Emergent Time in 2-Part Quantum Mini-Universe
Updated
Updated · Livescience.com · Jul 7
Barontini Demonstrates Emergent Time in 2-Part Quantum Mini-Universe
3 articles · Updated · Livescience.com · Jul 7
Summary
A June 11 Physical Review Research study used a Bose-Einstein condensate of ultracold rubidium atoms to show that time can emerge inside an isolated quantum system with no external clock.
By splitting the condensate into a watched “bright sector” and an ignored “dark sector,” Giovanni Barontini built an internal clock from entropy exchanged between the two halves.
That entropic time ordered events in the bright sector, but at a variable rate: it sped up when entropy flow was strong, slowed as exchange weakened, and stopped at equilibrium.
Using the internal clock, Barontini also derived a Schrödinger-equation form that matched the experiment, providing a direct lab test of relational-time ideas long discussed in quantum cosmology.
The proof-of-concept points to cold-atom systems as test beds for bigger questions in quantum gravity, including black-hole analogues, early-universe conditions and the arrow of time.
Scientists can now create time from disorder, while others can reverse its arrow. Which experiment reveals time's true nature?
If our ignorance creates time, would an all-knowing observer perceive a universe where time simply doesn't exist?
Experimental Mini-Universe Shows Time Can Emerge from Within Quantum Systems
Overview
In June 2026, Professor Giovanni Barontini and his team at the University of Birmingham made a major breakthrough by building a 'mini-universe' in the lab. Their experiment provided the first controlled evidence that time can emerge from within a quantum system, rather than being imposed from outside. By observing how atoms moved between different regions and how their disorder, or entropy, changed, the researchers showed that time could be generated from the behavior of matter itself. This challenges old ideas about time and suggests it is an emergent property, opening new ways to understand the universe.