An analog fluid model for some tachyonic effects in field theory

TL;DR

This paper models sound radiation from a supersonic acoustic source, termed 'tachyonic', analyzing phonon production and wave interference, revealing unique effects of superluminal-like motion in a fluid context.

Contribution

It introduces an acoustic analog of tachyonic effects, quantizes the perturbations, and characterizes phonon emission and interference patterns from a supersonic source.

Findings

Phonon distribution shows distinctive features for tachyonic sources

Classical wave interference patterns are derived for superluminal motion

Quantization reveals unique phonon emission characteristics

Abstract

We consider the sound radiation from an acoustic point-like source moving along a supersonic ("space-like") trajectory in a fluid at rest. We call it an acoustic "tachyonic" source. We describe the radiation emitted by this supersonic source. After quantizing the acoustic perturbations, we present the distribution of phonons generated by this classical tachyonic source and the classical wave interference pattern.