Rotating black hole geometries in a two-dimensional photon superfluid

Vocke, David and Maitland, Calum and Prain, Angus and Wilson, Kali E. and Biancalana, Fabio and Wright, Ewan M. and Marino, Francesco and Faccio, Daniele (2018) Rotating black hole geometries in a two-dimensional photon superfluid. Optica, 5 (9). pp. 1099-1103. ISSN 1899-7015 (https://doi.org/10.1364/OPTICA.5.001099)

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Abstract

Photon fluids have recently found applications in the simulation of a variety of physical phenomena such as superfluidity, vortex instabilities, and artificial gauge theories. Here we experimentally demonstrate the use of a photon fluid for analog gravity, i.e., the study of the physics of curved spacetime in the laboratory. While most analog gravity experiments are performed in 1 + 1 dimensions (one spatial plus time) and thus can only mimic 1 + 1D spacetime, we present a (room-temperature) photon superfluid where the geometry of a rotating acoustic black hole can be realized in 2 + 1D dimensions by an optical vortex. By measuring the local flow velocity and speed of waves in the photon superfluid, we identify a 2D region surrounded by an ergosphere and a spatially separated horizon.