Measurement of stimulated Hawking emission in an analogue system

Weinfurtner, Silke; Tedford, Edmund W.; Penrice, Matthew C. J.; Unruh, William G.; Lawrence, Gregory A.;

Open Access English

doi: 10.1103/physrevlett.106.021302

Published: 11 Aug 2010

- Summary
- References
  (28)

Abstract

There is a mathematical analogy between the propagation of fields in a general relativistic space-time and long (shallow water) surface waves on moving water. Hawking argued that black holes emit thermal radiation via a quantum spontaneous emission. Similar arguments predict the same effect near wave horizons in fluid flow. By placing a streamlined obstacle into an open channel flow we create a region of high velocity over the obstacle that can include wave horizons. Long waves propagating upstream towards this region are blocked and converted into short (deep water) waves. This is the analogue of the stimulated emission by a white hole (the time inverse of a black hole), and our measurements of the amplitudes of the converted waves demonstrate the thermal nature of the conversion process for this system. Given the close relationship between stimulated and spontaneous emission, our findings attest to the generality of the Hawking process.

Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures. This version corrects a processing error in the final graph 5b which multiplied the vertical axis by 2. The graph, and the data used from it, have been corrected. Some minor typos have also been corrected. This version also uses TeX rather than Word

Subjects by Vocabulary

arXiv: General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology Astrophysics::High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Microsoft Academic Graph classification: Physics Gravitational wave Quantum electrodynamics White hole Thermal radiation Black hole Stimulated emission Quantum field theory in curved spacetime Spontaneous emission Surface wave Quantum mechanics

Subjects

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology, Physics - Fluid Dynamics, General Physics and Astronomy

Related Organizations

28 references, page 1 of 3

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