Written by DEPKES.ORG March 2023
A synthetic analog of a black hole could tell us a thing or two about an elusive radiation theoretically emitted by the real thing.
Using a chain of atoms in single-file to simulate the event horizon of a black hole, a team of physicists observed the equivalent of what we call Hawking radiation – particles born from disturbances in the quantum fluctuations caused by the black hole's break in spacetime.
In a study published last year, led by Lotte Mertens of the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, researchers did something new.
A one-dimensional chain of atoms served as a path for electrons to 'hop' from one position to another.
The effect of this fake event horizon produced a rise in temperature that matched theoretical expectations of an equivalent black hole system, the team said, but only when part of the chain extended beyond the event horizon.