Black holes in Bose-Einstein condensates

The sonic analogue of a gravitational black hole in dilute-gas Bose-Einstein condensates is investigated. It is shown that there exist both dynamically stable and unstable configurations which, in the hydrodynamic limit, exhibit a behavior completely analogous to that of gravitational black holes. The dynamical instabilities involve creation of quasiparticle pairs in positive and negative energy states, just as in the well-known suggested mechanism for black hole evaporation. We have also simulated the creation of a stable sonic black hole by solving the full GrossPitaevskii equation numerically for a condensate in which its characteristic parameters are changed adiabatically. A sonic black hole could in this way be created experimentally with state-of-the-art or planned technology. PACS: 04.70.Dy, 03.75.Fi, 04.80.-y, gr-qc/0002015