Fiber-Optical Analog of the Event Horizon

Abstract

The physics at the event horizon resembles the behavior of waves in moving media. Horizons are formed where the local speed of the medium exceeds the wave velocity. We use ultrashort pulses in microstructured optical fibers to demonstrate the formation of an artificial event horizon in optics. We observed a classical optical effect, the blue-shifting of light at a white-hole horizon. We also show by theoretical calculations that such a system is capable of probing the quantum effects of horizons, in particular Hawking radiation.

Acoustic black holes in a two-dimensional “photon fluid”

“…Interesting proposals have been done also in the optical domain when Leonhardt and Piwnicki proposed to create an optical black hole [10]. The idea is feasible since the propagation of light in a moving medium resembles many features of a curved spacetime and very recently ultrashort pulses in optical fibers demonstrated the formation of an artificial event horizon [11].…”

Dumb holes: analogues for black holes

“…In the flowing fluid, the wavenumber of the escaping 'blueshifted' zero-wavenumber incoming wave is the solution to the equation vk Z ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi gk tanhðkhÞ p , where v is the local velocity of the fluid. See also the paper in this issue by and Philbin et al (2008) where the equivalent phenomenon is demonstrated for a white hole horizon formed in an optical fibre due the nonlinearities in the refractive index of the fibre caused by an intense pulse of light in the fibre. Again, a lower frequency wave incident on the white hole horizon is blue shifted until the group velocity of the wave is less than the velocity of the pulse.…”

Quantum vacuum emission from a refractive-index front

“…In 2008, Philbin et al [13] demonstrated the feasibility of creating artificial event horizons with a moving refractive-index front (RIF) in dispersive optical media. They estimated a temperature of 1000 K and ushered in the field of optical analogs [14][15][16][17].…”