Analogue gravity and the Hawking effect: historical perspective and literature review

Abstract

Reasoning by analogies permeates theoretical developments in physics and astrophysics, motivated by the unreachable nature of many phenomena at play. For example, analogies have been used to understand black hole physics, leading to the development of a thermodynamic theory for these objects and the discovery of the Hawking effect. The latter, which results from quantum field theory on black hole space-times, changed the way physicists approached this subject: what had started as a mere aid to understanding becomes a possible source of evidence via the research programme of `analogue gravity' that builds on analogue models for field effects. Some of these analogue models may and can be realised in the laboratory, allowing experimental tests of field effects. Here, we present a historical perspective on the connection between the Hawking effect and analogue models. We also present a literature review of current research, bringing history and contemporary physics together. We argue that the history of analogue gravity and the Hawking effect is divided into three distinct phases based on how and why analogue models have been used to investigate fields in the vicinity of black holes. Furthermore, we find that modern research signals a transition to a new phase, where the impetus for the use of analogue models has surpassed the problem they were originally designed to solve.

Version accepted for publication in special issue of EPJH on modern developments in quantum theory

References in corpus (21)

• Fiber-optical analogue of the event horizon
• Measurement of stimulated Hawking emission in an analogue system
• Hawking radiation from ultrashort laser pulse filaments
• The fuzzball proposal for black holes
• Numerical observation of Hawking radiation from acoustic black holes in atomic Bose-Einstein condensates
• Observation of negative-frequency waves in a water tank: A classical analogue to the Hawking effect?
• An acoustic analog to the dynamical Casimir effect in a Bose-Einstein condensate
• Quantum simulation of cosmic inflation in two-component Bose-Einstein condensates
• "Cosmological" quasiparticle production in harmonically trapped superfluid gases
• Analogue Hawking Radiation in a dc-SQUID Array Transmission Line
• Black/White hole radiation from dispersive theories
• Acoustic black holes in a two-dimensional "photon-fluid"
• The next generation of analogue gravity experiments
• Dielectric black holes induced by a refractive index perturbation and the Hawking effect
• Rotating black holes in a draining bathtub: superradiant scattering of gravity waves
• Quantum vacuum emission in a nonlinear optical medium illuminated by a strong laser pulse
• Assessing degrees of entanglement of phonon states in atomic Bose gases through the measurement of commuting observables
• Quantum entanglement due to modulated Dynamical Casimir Effect
• Low frequency analogue Hawking radiation: The Bogoliubov-de Gennes model
• Introduction to Quantum Fields in Curved Spacetime and the Hawking Effect
• Low frequency analogue Hawking radiation: The Korteweg-de Vries model

Cited by in corpus (10)

• Toward the Observation of Entangled Pairs in BEC analogue Expanding Universes
• Relevance of "on" and "off" transitions in quantum pair production experiments
• Quantum aspects of spacetime: A quantum optics view of acceleration radiation and black holes
• Quantum thermal machines in BTZ black hole spacetime
• Rescuing the Unruh Effect in Lorentz Violating Gravity
• Wind-Finslerian structure of black holes
• Stimulated Hawking effect and quasinormal mode resonance in a polariton simulator of field theory on curved spacetime
• Analogue black string in a quantum harmonic oscillator
• Acoustic horizons and the Hawking effect in polariton fluids of light
• Ersatz gravity and black-hole thermodynamics from Manin gauge theory with noncompact gauge group