Observation of Stimulated Hawking Radiation in an Optical Analogue

Jonathan Drori*, Yuval Rosenberg, David Bermudez, Yaron Silberberg, Ulf Leonhardt

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

156 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The theory of Hawking radiation can be tested in laboratory analogues of black holes. We use light pulses in nonlinear fiber optics to establish artificial event horizons. Each pulse generates a moving perturbation of the refractive index via the Kerr effect. Probe light perceives this as an event horizon when its group velocity, slowed down by the perturbation, matches the speed of the pulse. We have observed in our experiment that the probe stimulates Hawking radiation, which occurs in a regime of extreme nonlinear fiber optics where positive and negative frequencies mix.

Original languageEnglish
Article number010404
Number of pages6
JournalPhysical Review Letters
Volume122
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 9 Jan 2019

Funding

We thank Shalva Amiranashvili, Uwe Bandelow, Ora Bitton, Itay Griniasty, Theodor W. Hänsch, Sunil Kumar, Michael Krüger, Rafael Probst, Arno Rauschenbeutel, and Thomas Udem for help and helpful discussions. Our Letter was supported by the European Research Council, the Israel Science Foundation, a research grant from Mr. and Mrs. Louis Rosenmayer and from Mr. and Mrs. James Nathan, and the Murray B. Koffler Professorial Chair. J. D. and Y. R. contributed equally to this work.

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Physics and Astronomy

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