Observation of Stimulated Hawking Radiation in Optics

Speaker: Jonathan Drori
Affiliation: Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel

Hosted by IEEE Photonics Society Los Angeles Chapter

Abstract: Hawking radiation, the spontaneous emission of light from black holes due to quantum fluctuations, is too weak to be measured from known astrophysical sources. However, experimental observations can be made in laboratory settings using analogue systems, in which the space-time geometry of the event horizon is mimicked by a moving medium. I will present recent experimental observations of the stimulated version of the Hawking effect from a fiber optical analogue of the event horizon. In our experiment, a few-cycle laser pulse travelling in a highly nonlinear optical fiber creates an effective moving medium. As a result, probe light traveling with similar group velocity experiences an event horizon. We observe the scattering of the probe by the horizon into positive and negative frequency modes which correspond to the positive and negative energy Hawking partners in the case where the horizon is stimulated by the quantum vacuum. This study paves the way for the observation of spontaneous Hawking radiation and related phenomena.

Biography: Jonathan did his B.Sc in Physics in the Hebrew University and M.Sc in solid state physics under the guidance of Prof. Eli Zeldov at the Weizmann Institute. For his PHD he then moved to optics under the guidance of Prof. Ulf Leonhardt. Jonathan, being Prof. Leonhardt’s first experimental student, set up the laboratory and experiments from scratch and today he will present their first experimental results.

For more information, contact Cejo K. Lonappan, Chair, IEEE Photonics Society LA Chapter (cejo@ucla.edu)

Date/Time:
Date(s) - Oct 19, 2018
4:00 pm - 5:00 pm

Location:
E-IV Tesla Room #53-125
420 Westwood Plaza - 5th Flr., Los Angeles CA 90095