The basics of analogue gravity with polariton fluids

by Dr Maxime Jacquet (Laboratoire Kastler Brossel)

Friday 26 Jan 2024, 15:00 → 17:00 Europe/Berlin

Online seminar on Zoom

https://uni-jena-de.zoom-x.de/j/69885170203?pwd=aUd3ZTlySnBONUI0Mk0wWnZiM3k3UT09

Abstract:

Quantum effects of fields on curved spacetimes may be studied in the laboratory thanks to quantum fluids via `analogue gravity'. In this talk, I will review the theoretical foundations of analogue gravity with fluid systems before focusing on the specific case of the Hawking effect. This manifests as the correlated emission of paired excitations of the acoustic field at the acoustic horizon in an inhomogeneous fluid flow. I will then introduce our experimental platform [1,2]: quantum fluids of polaritons, composite bosons resulting from the strong coupling of laser light confined in a cavity with semiconductor excitons. Polaritons are intrinsically out of thermal equilibrium, which not only bears experimental advantages over other quantum fluids [1,2] but should also permit the observation of new field effects at the horizon [3].

I will explain how to create acoustic horizons with polaritons and review recent theoretical results on the Hawking effect in this platform [3,4]. This will open a discussion on the impact of out-of-equilibrium physics on horizon emission and the possibility to generally study of new phenomenology of fields on curved spacetimes.

[1] Jacquet et al. Polariton fluids for analogue gravity physics. Phil.Trans.R.Soc.A378: 20190225 (2020)

[2] Falque et al. Spectroscopic measurement of the excitation spectrum on effectively curved spacetimes in a polaritonic fluid of light. arXiv:2311.01392

[3] Jacquet et al. Quantum Vacuum Excitation of a Quasinormal Mode in an Analog Model of Black Hole Spacetime. Phys. Rev. Lett. 130 111501 (2023)

[4] Jacquet et al. Analogue quantum simulation of the Hawking effect in a polariton superfluid. Euro. Phys. Jour. D 76 152 (2022)