An optical black hole is a phenomenon in which
slow light
Slow light is the propagation of an optical pulse or other modulation of an optical carrier at a very low group velocity. Slow light occurs when a propagating pulse is substantially slowed by the interaction with the medium in which the propagatio ...
is passed through a
Bose–Einstein condensate
In condensed matter physics, a Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC) is a state of matter that is typically formed when a gas of bosons at very low densities is cooled to temperatures very close to absolute zero (−273.15 °C or −459.6 ...
that is itself spinning faster than the local speed of light within to create a vortex capable of trapping the light behind an
event horizon
In astrophysics, an event horizon is a boundary beyond which events cannot affect an observer. Wolfgang Rindler coined the term in the 1950s.
In 1784, John Michell proposed that gravity can be strong enough in the vicinity of massive compact ob ...
just as a gravitational
black hole would.
Unlike other black hole analogs such as a
sonic black hole
A sonic black hole, sometimes called a dumb hole or acoustic black hole, is a phenomenon in which phonons (sound perturbations) are unable to escape from a region of a fluid that is flowing more quickly than the local speed of sound. They are cal ...
in a Bose–Einstein condensate, a slow light black hole analog is not expected to mimic the
quantum effects of a black hole, and thus not emit
Hawking radiation
Hawking radiation is theoretical black body radiation that is theorized to be released outside a black hole's event horizon because of relativistic quantum effects. It is named after the physicist Stephen Hawking, who developed a theoretical a ...
. It does, however, mimic the
classical properties of a gravitational black hole, making it potentially useful in studying other properties of black holes.
More recently, some physicists have developed a fiber optic based system which they believe will emit Hawking radiation.
See also
*
Sonic black hole
A sonic black hole, sometimes called a dumb hole or acoustic black hole, is a phenomenon in which phonons (sound perturbations) are unable to escape from a region of a fluid that is flowing more quickly than the local speed of sound. They are cal ...
*
Analog models of gravity Analog models of gravity are attempts to model various phenomena of general relativity
General relativity, also known as the general theory of relativity and Einstein's theory of gravity, is the geometric theory of gravitation published by A ...
Notes
Black holes
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