Acoustic Black Hole Created in Bose-Einstein Condensate

June 11, 2009 | Source: the physics arXiv blog

The sonic equivalent of a black hole in a Bose-Einstein Condensate has been created by Israel Institute of Technology researchers using a deep potential well to generate an event horizon between subsonic and supersonic flow of atoms.

Sonic black holes ought to produce Hawking radiation, since quantum mechanics predicts that pairs of “virtual” phonons with equal and opposite momentum ought to be constantly springing in and out of existence in BECs.