Analog models of gravity explained

Analog models of gravity are attempts to model various phenomena of general relativity (e.g., black holes or cosmological geometries) using other physical systems such as acoustics in a moving fluid, superfluid helium, or Bose–Einstein condensate; gravity waves in water; and propagation of electromagnetic waves in a dielectric medium.^[1] These analogs (or analogies) serve to provide new ways of looking at problems, permit ideas from other realms of science to be applied, and may create opportunities for practical experiments within the analog that can be applied back to the source phenomena.

History

Analog models of gravity have been used in hundreds of published articles in the last decade.^[2] The use of these analogs can be traced back to the very start of scientific theories for gravity, with Newton and Einstein.

Bose-Einstein condensates

It has been shown that Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC) are a good platform to study analog gravity.^[3] Kerr (rotating) black holes have been implemented in a BEC of exciton-polaritons (a quantum fluid of light).^[4]

See also

• Acoustic metric
• Transformation optics
• Optical metric#Analogue gravity
• Optical black hole
• Sonic black hole

Notes and References

1. Barceló. Carlos. Liberati. Stefano. Visser. Matt. Analogue Gravity. Living Reviews in Relativity. 2011. 14. 3. 3. 2011LRR....14....3B. 10.12942/lrr-2011-3. free . 28179830. 5255896. gr-qc/0505065.
2. Visser. Matt. Barceló. Carlos. Liberati. Stefano. Analogue models of and for gravity. General Relativity and Gravitation. 2002. 34. 10. 1719–1734. 10.1023/A:1020180409214. gr-qc/0111111. 2001gr.qc....11111V. 14342213.
3. Barceló . Carlos . Liberati . S . Visser . Matt . 2001-03-14 . Analogue gravity from Bose-Einstein condensates . Classical and Quantum Gravity . 18 . 6 . 1137–1156 . 10.1088/0264-9381/18/6/312 . 0264-9381. gr-qc/0011026 . 2001CQGra..18.1137B .
4. Solnyshkov . D. D. . Leblanc . C. . Koniakhin . S. V. . Bleu . O. . Malpuech . G. . 2019-06-24 . Quantum analogue of a Kerr black hole and the Penrose effect in a Bose-Einstein condensate . Physical Review B . en . 99 . 21 . 214511 . 10.1103/PhysRevB.99.214511 . 2469-9950. 1809.05386 . 2019PhRvB..99u4511S . 119077097 .