Event horizons are tunable factories for quantum entanglement

Louisiana State University physicists have taken advantage of quantum information theory techniques to reveal a mechanism for amplifying or “stimulating” entanglement production in the Hawking effect in a controlled manner. Furthermore, these scientists propose a protocol to test this idea in the laboratory using synthetically produced event horizons. These results were recently published in Physical Review Letters“Quantum Aspects of Stimulated Hawking Radiation in a Pair of Analogized White Black Holes”, Ivan Agullo, Anthony J. Brady and Demetrius Kranas present these ideas and apply them to optical systems containing an analogue of a white black hole.

Black holes are among the most puzzling things in our universe, largely due to the fact that their inner workings are hidden behind a completely mysterious veil – the event horizon of a black hole.

In 1974, Stephen Hawking added more mystery to the character of black holes by showing it once quantitative effects A black hole is not really black at all, but instead emits radiation, as if it were a hot object, gradually losing mass in what is called the “Hawking evaporation process”. Moreover, Hawking’s calculations showed that the emitted radiation is mechanically entangled with the bowels of the black hole itself. This entanglement is the quantum signature of the Hawking effect. This startling result is difficult, if not impossible, to test on astrophysical black holes, because the faint Hawking radiation has been overshadowed by other radiation sources in the universe.

On the other hand, in the eighties, a Main article by William Unrue He demonstrated that spontaneous production of entangled Hawking particles occurs in any system that can support an effective event horizon. Such systems generally fall under the umbrella of “analog gravity systems” and have opened a window for testing Hawking’s ideas in the lab.

Serious experimental investigations into analog gravitational systems — made of Bose-Einstein capacitors, nonlinear optical fibers, or even flowing water — have been underway for more than a decade. Stimulated and spontaneously generated Hawking radiation has recently been observed on several platforms, but entanglement measurement has proven elusive due to its faint and brittle character.

“We show that by illuminating the horizon, or horizons, with appropriately selected quantum states, one can amplify entanglement production in the Hawking process in a tunable manner,” said Associate Professor Ivan Agulu. “As an example, we apply these ideas to the tactile case of a pair of analog white black holes that share an interior and are produced within a nonlinear optical material.”

“Many of the quantum information tools used in this research were from my postgraduate research with Professor Jonathan B Dowling,” said Ph.D. 2021. Alumnus Anthony Brady, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Arizona. “John was charismatic, and he introduced his charisma and charisma into his science, as well as his advice. He encouraged me to work on whimsical ideas, such as analog black holes, and see if I could incorporate techniques from different fields of physics—such as quantum information and analog gravity—in order to Produce something new, or “nice,” as he liked to say.

“The Hawking process is one of the richest physical phenomena connecting seemingly unrelated fields of physics from quantum theory to thermodynamics and relativity,” said Demetrius Kranas, a graduate student at LSU. “Analog black holes have come to add an extra flavor to the effect, providing us, at the same time, with an exciting possibility to test it in the lab. Our detailed numerical analysis allows us to explore new features of the Hawking process, helping us better understand the similarities and differences between astrophysics and analog. black holes. ”