Quantum gravity simulation by non-paraxial nonlinear optics

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that tightly focused laser beams can simulate quantum gravity phenomena, revealing analogs of Planck-scale physics and predicting self-trapped subwavelength solitary waves in nonlinear optics.

Contribution

It establishes a formal analogy between quantum gravity equations and nonparaxial laser beam propagation, enabling laboratory simulation of quantum gravity effects.

Findings

Analog of Planck-scale physics found in laser beam propagation

Prediction of self-trapped subwavelength solitary waves

Formal equivalence between quantum mechanics equations and nonlinear optics

Abstract

We show that an analog of the physics at the Planck scale can be found in the propagation of tightly focused laser beams. Various equations that occur in generalized quantum mechanics are formally identical to those describing the nonlinear nonlocal propagation of nonparaxial laser beams. The analysis includes a generalized uncertainty principle and shows that the nonlinear focusing of a light beam with dimensions comparable to the wavelength corresponds to the spontaneous excitation of the so-called maximally localized states. The approach, driven by the ideas of the quantum gravity physics, allows one to predict the existence of self-trapped subwavelength solitary waves for both focusing and defocusing nonlinearities, and opens the way to laboratory simulations of phenomena that have been considered to be inaccessible.