On the 60th anniversary of the L.D. Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics of the RAS
From Landau two-fluid model to de Sitter Universe
G.E. Volovik Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, ul. Kosygina 2, Moscow, 119334, Russian Federation
The condensed matter analogs are useful for consideration of the phenomena related to the quantum
vacuum. This is because in condensed matter we know physics both in the infrared and in
the ultraviolet limits, while in particle physics and gravity the physics at trans-Planckian scale is
unknown. One of the corner stones of the connections between the non-relativistic condensed matter
and the modern relativistic theories is the two-fluid hydrodynamics of superfluid helium, which was
developed by Landau and Khalatnikov (Isaak Markovich Khalatnikov later founded and headed the
Landau Institute). The dynamics and thermodynamics of the de Sitter state of the expansion of
the Universe bear some features of the multi-fluid system. There are actually three components:
the quantum vacuum, the gravitational component and relativistic matter. The expanding de Sitter
vacuum serves as the thermal bath with local temperature, which is twice the Gibbons-Hawking
temperature related to the cosmological horizon. This local temperature leads to the heating of
matter component and the gravitational component. The latter behaves as Zel'dovich stiff matter
and represents the dark matter. In equilibrium and in the absence of the conventional matter
the positive partial pressure of dark matter compensates the negative partial pressure of quantum
vacuum. That is why in the full equilibrium the total pressure is zero. This is rather similar to
the correspondingly superfluid and normal components of superfluid liquid, which together produce
the zero pressure of the liquid in the absence of environment. We suggest the phenomenological
theory, which describes the dynamics of the dark energy and the dark matter. If one assumes that
in dynamics, the gravitational dark matter behaves as the real Zel’dovich stiff matter, one obtains
that both components experience the power law decay due to the energy exchange between these
components. Then it follows that their values at present time have the correct order of magnitude.
We also consider the other problems through the prism of condensed matter physics, including the
black holes and Planck constant.
Keywords: quantum vacuum, thermodynamics of de Sitter Universe, quantum tunneling, black holes, Unruh effect, Planck constants DOI:10.3367/UFNe.2025.03.039890 Citation: Volovik G E "From Landau two-fluid model to de Sitter Universe" Phys. Usp., accepted
Received: 25th, January 2025, revised: 14th, March 2025, accepted: 17th, March 2025