A Universe within a Universe

Have you ever thought or read about a Universe that had different physical laws, where the speed of light was different, where faster of light travel was possible. If you did, then that's great, but let me tell you that we do not have to go out of the Universe to see what happens if the physical laws were different. Condensed matter systems are a great example of what can happen if the physical laws of our Universe are different.

It is well known that the properties of particles change in a condensed matter system. For example, electrons can have a different effective mass in various materials, they can travel faster than the speed of light in that material (the origin of the so-called Cherenkov radiation), light has a different speed in various materials, etc. There is a lot of progress being made in condensed matter physics. Recently, a research group observed magnetic monopoles in a class of topological materials.

Condensed matter lies at the core of many ideas in particle physics as well. The Higgs mechanism is one such example. In fact, in my view, particle physicists have just modeled the whole Universe on a condensed matter system. In a simplistic picture, a condensed matter system can be thought of a region where there is an effective potential. Due to this potential the properties of particles, such as their effective mass, can change. So particle physicists by introducing the Higgs field (which is done by adding a potential in the Lagrangian) have essentially made the Universe a big condensed matter system. So, in my view, what they have done with the Higgs mechanism is nothing non-trivial.

Another point that I would like the reader to think about is the assumptions under which Einstein's theory of special relativity was formulated. It was based on light, in particular, the concepts time dilation and length contraction. The question is, do these concepts change in condensed matter systems? I always think what would happen if we lived in a condensed matter system where faster than speed of light is possible. What would happen to the theory of relativity in such a system? This is again a philosophical way of thinking which is essentially forbidden in physics and academia in general. Classical physicists during Einstein's time used to think about ideas philosophically because they were typically well versed in philosophy. These days physicists are mostly like materialistic robots who live in a bubble of ideas they studied during their PhD. Most of them stay in that bubble their whole life and if you talk to them about these ideas their response is sometimes of fascination but most of the cases their brains cannot process a philosophical approach. They just want to take their favorite equation, twiddle it and publish a new paper.

Therefore, I view condensed matter systems as terrestrial demonstrations of the multiverse (although I am not a big fan of the theory of multiverse that the particle physicists have proposed). Note that this is not the standard way physicist would refer to condensed matter systems (there is a reason I call myself a non-conformist). This view of mine has evolved from my research in Lorentz violation.