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Hawking-Like Radiation Does Not Require a Trapped Region

Carlos Barceló, Stefano Liberati, Sebastiano Sonego, and Matt Visser
Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 171301 – Published 24 October 2006
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Abstract

We discuss the issue of quasiparticle production by “analogue black holes” with particular attention paid to the possibility of reproducing Hawking radiation in a laboratory. By constructing simple geometric acoustic models, we obtain a somewhat unexpected result: We show that, in order to obtain a stationary and Planckian emission of quasiparticles, it is not necessary to create a trapped region in the acoustic spacetime (corresponding to a supersonic regime in the fluid flow). It is sufficient to set up a dynamically changing flow asymptotically approaching a sonic regime with sufficient rapidity in laboratory time. This result is generic to curved-space quantum field theory, the “analogue spacetimes” we consider providing a guide to physical intuition, and a possible route to laboratory experiments.

  • Figure
  • Received 28 June 2006

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.97.171301

©2006 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Carlos Barceló1, Stefano Liberati2, Sebastiano Sonego3, and Matt Visser4

  • 1Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía, CSIC, Camino Bajo de Huétor 50, 18008 Granada, Spain
  • 2Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati, via Beirut 4, 34014 Trieste, Italy, and INFN, Sezione di Trieste, Trieste, Italy
  • 3Università di Udine, Via delle Scienze 208, 33100 Udine, Italy
  • 4School of Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand

See Also

Black Holes that Don’t Trap

Michael Schirber
Phys. Rev. Focus 18, 12 (2006)

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Issue

Vol. 97, Iss. 17 — 27 October 2006

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