  We show that in the collapse of a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) {For an
excellent introduction to BEC theory, see C. Pethick and H. Smith,
Bose-Einstein condensation in dilute gases (Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge, England, 2002)} certain processes involved and mechanisms at work
share a common origin with corresponding quantum field processes in the early
universe such as particle creation, structure formation and spinodal
instability. Phenomena associated with the controlled BEC collapse observed in
the experiment of Donley et al E. Donley et. al., Nature 412, 295 (2001)(they
call it `Bose-Nova', see also J. Chin, J. Vogels and W. Ketterle, Phys. Rev.
Lett. 90, 160405 (2003)) such as the appearance of bursts and jets can be
explained as a consequence of the squeezing and amplification of quantum
fluctuations above the condensate by the dynamics of the condensate. Using the
physical insight gained in depicting these cosmological processes, our analysis
of the changing amplitude and particle contents of quantum excitations in these
BEC dynamics provides excellent quantitative fits with the experimental data on
the scaling behavior of the collapse time and the amount of particles emitted
in the jets. Because of the coherence properties of BEC and the high degree of
control and measurement precision in atomic and optical systems, we see great
potential in the design of tabletop experiments for testing out general ideas
and specific (quantum field) processes in the early universe, thus opening up
the possibility for implementing `laboratory cosmology'.
