A question that has long challenged physics is gaining fresh attention after a team at the University of Birmingham built a miniature “universe” in the laboratory. Led by Giovanni Barontini, the experiment was designed to test whether time depends on an external clock or can emerge from changes inside a system itself.
The result matters because time remains one of the biggest mysteries in quantum physics. According to Science Alert, the findings support the idea that time does not always have to appear as an external parameter and may instead arise naturally from internal dynamics.
A system built to behave like a tiny universe
To explore that idea, the researchers used about 24,000 rubidium atoms. The atoms were cooled to an extreme temperature, just one-millionth of a billionth of a degree above absolute zero.
At that point, the atoms formed a Bose-Einstein condensate, a state of matter in which all particles move as one collective unit. In this condition, the system behaves like a “superparticle,” making it easier to observe basic behavior tied to matter and time.
The system was then placed in an optical trap made with two laser beams. That setup split it into two regions: a bright sector that could be observed and a dark sector that could not.
Time emerging from internal change
The scientists tracked how the atoms moved back and forth between the two regions. From those transitions, they saw changes in the system’s order that could be read as internal evolution.
Each atomic shift altered the level of order inside the system. That change became the key basis for the researchers’ conclusion.
In this experiment, the system’s evolution could function as an internal clock. Time was not measured from outside the system, but emerged from the dynamics taking place within it.
That idea aligns with theories suggesting that time may not be one of the most fundamental parts of the universe. It may instead be an emergent phenomenon, shaped by interaction and change at the quantum level.
Why the finding matters
If time can emerge without an external clock, then physics may need to rethink how reality is described. Time is often treated as a constant flow that serves as the backdrop for every event, but this experiment suggests that view does not always hold in the quantum world.
The finding also shows that a physical system can register its own changes. In other words, a system does not always need an outside observer or measuring device to demonstrate that events are unfolding in sequence.
For modern physics, the experiment opens another path for studying the relationship between change, order, and time. The work by Barontini’s team does not close the debate, but it offers laboratory evidence supporting the view that time may come from internal processes rather than something standing outside the system.