Theorie Kolloquium | January 20, 16:30

Measuring Black Hole radiation in the lab

William G. Unruh

Hawking's prediction that black holes should radiate was one of the biggest surprizes in physics of the late 20th century. It has dominated much of the study in the interface between gravity and Quantum Mechanics ever since. The calculation Hawking presented is problematic, and thus experimental confirmation would be good. Unfortunately, finding small black holes is hard. However, there turn out to be analog systems, systems with horizons which one can and is studying in the lab. I will present the arguments and the current experimental effort to see the radiation, and the arguments that some experiments have already seen it.


University of British Columbia, Vancouver
TP seminar room 0.03
Contact: Claus Kiefer