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Ultracold atoms

A black-hole laser

Nature Physics volume 10, pages 793–794 (2014)Cite this article

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Astrophysical observations of Hawking radiation may be out of reach, but evidence for the self-amplification of Hawking radiation has now been observed in a sonic analogue of a black hole.

In 1974, Stephen Hawking introduced the revolutionary idea that a black hole can emit electromagnetic radiation, known as Hawking radiation, through a process where gravity meets quantum mechanics and thermodynamics1. It was clear from the very beginning, however, that observing this process in nature may not be possible, as the amount of radiation emitted from a typical black hole would be extremely small. As he reports in Nature Physics, Jeff Steinhauer2 has now observed this phenomenon in a sonic analogue of a black hole, where the Hawking radiation is much stronger. This system offers exciting possibilities to learn more about Hawking radiation and related astrophysical phenomena from table-top laboratory experiments.

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Figure 1: Sketch of a black-hole laser.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Giovanni Modugno is at the European Laboratory for Non-linear Spectroscopy (LENS) and in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Florence, Sesto Fiorentino 50019, Italy,

    Giovanni Modugno

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  1. Giovanni Modugno
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Correspondence to Giovanni Modugno.

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Modugno, G. A black-hole laser. Nature Phys 10, 793–794 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys3141

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