Hawking radiation on an ion ring in the quantum regime

This paper discusses a recent proposal for the simulation of acoustic black holes with ions (Horstmann et al 2010 Phys. Rev. Lett. 104 250403). Ions are rotating on a ring with an inhomogeneous but stationary velocity profile. Phonons cannot leave a region in which the ion velocity exceeds the group velocity of the phonons, like light cannot escape from a black hole. The system is described by a discrete field theory with a nonlinear dispersion relation. Hawking radiation is emitted by this acoustic black hole, generating entanglement between the inside and the outside of the black hole. We study schemes for detecting the Hawking effect in this setup. New Journal of Physics 13 (2011) 069601 1367-2630/11/069601+01$33.00 © IOP Publishing Ltd and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft T h e o p e n – a c c e s s j o u r n a l f o r p h y s i c s New Journal of Physics Hawking radiation on an ion ring in the quantum regime Birger Horstmann1,5, Ralf Schützhold2, Benni Reznik3, Serena Fagnocchi4 and J Ignacio Cirac1 1Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, Hans-Kopfermann-Straße 1, 85748 Garching, Germany 2Universität Duisburg-Essen, Lotharstraße 1, 47048 Duisburg, Germany 3Department of Physics and Astronomy, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv 69978, Israel 4 School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK E-mail: [email protected] New Journal of Physics 13 (2011) 045008 (41pp) Received 20 August 2010 Published 8 April 2011 Online at http://www.njp.org/ doi:10.1088/1367-2630/13/4/045008 Abstract. This paper discusses a recent proposal for the simulation of acoustic black holes with ions (Horstmann et al 2010 Phys. Rev. Lett. 104 250403). Ions are rotating on a ring with an inhomogeneous but stationary velocity profile. Phonons cannot leave a region in which the ion velocity exceeds the group velocity of the phonons, because light cannot escape from a black hole. The system is described by a discrete field theory with a nonlinear dispersion relation. Hawking radiation is emitted by this acoustic black hole, generating entanglement between the inside and the outside of the black hole. We study schemes for detecting the Hawking effect in this setup. S Online supplementary data available from stacks.iop.org/NJP/13/045008/ mmedia This paper discusses a recent proposal for the simulation of acoustic black holes with ions (Horstmann et al 2010 Phys. Rev. Lett. 104 250403). Ions are rotating on a ring with an inhomogeneous but stationary velocity profile. Phonons cannot leave a region in which the ion velocity exceeds the group velocity of the phonons, because light cannot escape from a black hole. The system is described by a discrete field theory with a nonlinear dispersion relation. Hawking radiation is emitted by this acoustic black hole, generating entanglement between the inside and the outside of the black hole. We study schemes for detecting the Hawking effect in this setup. S Online supplementary data available from stacks.iop.org/NJP/13/045008/ mmedia 5 Author to whom any correspondence should be addressed. New Journal of Physics 13 (2011) 045008 1367-2630/11/045008+41$33.00 © IOP Publishing Ltd and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft