Dielectric black holes induced by a refractive index perturbation and the Hawking effect

Abstract

We consider a 4D model for photon production induced by a refractive index perturbation in a dielectric medium. We show that, in this model, we can infer the presence of a Hawking type effect. This prediction shows up both in the analogue Hawking framework, which is implemented in the pulse frame and relies on the peculiar properties of the effective geometry in which quantum fields propagate, as well as in the laboratory frame, through standard quantum field theory calculations. Effects of optical dispersion are also taken into account, and are shown to provide a limited energy bandwidth for the emission of Hawking radiation.

Belgiornoet al.Reply:

“…The time scale for this variation is therefore dv/κ ∼ 1 fs, which is more than three orders of magnitude shorter than the time-scale over which nearly stationary, filament-like propagation is observed. ii) Phase-divergence at the horizon: this has been shown to occur [2]. If we trace back in time the outgoing modes in the dispersionless case, we find that they suffer a phase divergence at the horizon with the same logarithmic nature as that pointed out by Hawking in his original work [2].…”

Kinematic study of the effect of dispersion in quantum vacuum emission from strong laser pulses

“…In a nondispersive stationary medium, the necessary and sufficient condition to trigger particle creationà la Hawking would be the presence of analogue horizons and the spectrum of the spontaneously emitted particles would be Planckian at a temperature proportional to the surface gravity of the horizon [13]. In dispersive media such as fused silica, the situation is kinematically more complicate, but quantum vacuum emission remains still possible: while horizons are no longer necessary for the emission, a sufficient condition is the presence of positive-norm modes with negative frequency in the reference frame comoving with the pulse.…”

Hawking radiation from a dielectric black hole

“…Recently, Belgiorno et al (2010aBelgiorno et al ( , 2011) consider a 4D model for photon production induced by a refractive index perturbation (RIP) in a dielectric medium. In a nonlinear Kerr medium, there is a constant velocity v in the x direction and infinitely extended in the transverse y and z directions.…”

“…China e-mail: zhaoren2969@yahoo.com.cn hole is so low that any experiments cannot reach such low temperature. For example, for a Schwarzschild black hole with the same order of magnitude compared with solar mass, its radiation temperature just is 10 −7 K. Therefore, in the laboratory Hawking effect is investigated by simulated black holes (Unruh 1981;Belgiorno et al 2010aBelgiorno et al , 2010bFaccio et al 2010;Schutzhold and Unruh 2011;Philbin et al 2008;Belgiorno et al 2011).…”