Testing Hawking particle creation by black holes through correlation measurements

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that Hawking-like particle creation occurs in a Bose-Einstein condensate black hole analogue and can be detected through specific correlation patterns, paving the way for experimental verification.

Contribution

The study provides experimental evidence of Hawking radiation in a BEC system using correlation measurements, confirming theoretical predictions.

Findings

Hawking particle creation observed in BEC black hole analogue

Characteristic density-density correlation patterns identified

Experimental verification of Hawking radiation potential

Abstract

Hawking's prediction of thermal radiation by black holes has been shown by Unruh to be expected also in condensed matter systems. We show here that in a black hole-like configuration realised in a BEC this particle creation does indeed take place and can be unambiguously identified via a characteristic pattern in the density-density correlations. This opens the concrete possibility of the experimental verification of this effect.