Note on Hawking-Unruh effects in graphene

TL;DR

This paper discusses the potential of using strained graphene sheets as analog models for curved spacetime phenomena like Hawking-Unruh effects, emphasizing the influence of pseudomagnetic fields and surface modes on experimental observations.

Contribution

It proposes that near-field heat transfer experiments in strained graphene could serve as analogs for black hole membrane phenomena, considering pseudomagnetic effects.

Findings

Strained graphene can mimic curved spacetime effects.

Pseudomagnetic fields significantly influence electron motion.

Surface polariton modes impact near-field radiative transfer.

Abstract

Beltrami-shaped graphene sheets have been recently proposed as analogs of curved spacetimes with Hawking-Unruh effects detected through typical condensed matter measurements involving scanning tunneling microscopes and spectroscopy. However, such deformed sheets, if ever fabricated, will contain large strain-induced pseudomagnetic fields with important guiding effects on the motion of the electrons in the conduction band. Besides, possible surface polariton and plasmon modes are known to be important players in the radiative heat transfer which takes place in the natural near-field nanoscale experimental conditions. Therefore, we suggest here that the latter class of experiments could shed light on phenomena related to the black hole membrane paradigm instead