Understanding Hawking radiation from simple models of atomic Bose-Einstein condensates
arXiv:1207.2660 · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-00266-8_9
Abstract
This chapter is an introduction to the Bogoliubov theory of dilute Bose condensates as applied to the study of the spontaneous emission of phonons in a stationary condensate flowing at supersonic speeds. This emission process is a condensed-matter analog of Hawking radiation from astrophysical black holes but is derived here from a microscopic quantum theory of the condensate without any use of the analogy with gravitational systems. To facilitate physical understanding of the basic concepts, a simple one-dimensional geometry with a stepwise homogenous flow is considered which allows for a fully analytical treatment.
41 pages. to appear in the proceedings of the IX SIGRAV School on 'Analogue Gravity', Como (Italy), May 2011