Ruling out stray thermal radiation in analogue black holes

TL;DR

This paper presents a method using coherent states and homodyne detection to distinguish genuine Hawking radiation from thermal noise in analogue black hole experiments, improving the reliability of such measurements.

Contribution

It introduces a framework to identify and exclude non-Hawking thermal effects in analogue black hole experiments using quantum optical techniques.

Findings

Coherent states and homodyne detection can effectively rule out non-Hawking thermal contributions.

The paper parameterizes bosonic thermal channels relevant to analogue black hole experiments.

The approach enhances the accuracy of detecting Hawking-like radiation in laboratory settings.

Abstract

Experimental searches for the thermal radiation from analogue black holes require the measurement of very low temperatures in regimes where other thermal noises may interfere or even mimic the sought-after effect. In this letter, we parameterize the family of bosonic thermal channels which give rise to such thermal effects and show that by use of coherent states and homodyne detection one can rule out the non-Hawking contributions and identify those candidate sources which arise from Hawking-like processes.