Revisiting time reversal and holography with spacetime transformations

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how sudden temporal changes in a medium can generate time-reversed waves and introduces a universal framework for wave control using spacetime transformations, revisiting holography concepts.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of instantaneous time mirrors and a universal framework for wave manipulation through time disruptions, expanding wave control methods.

Findings

Time-reversed waves can be generated by sudden changes in effective gravity.

A universal framework explains wave effects of any time disruption.

Time disruptions create instant wave sources called 'Cauchy sources'.

Abstract

Wave control is usually performed by spatially engineering the properties of a medium. Because time and space play similar roles in wave propagation, manipulating time boundaries provides a complementary approach. Here, we experimentally demonstrate the relevance of this concept by introducing instantaneous time mirrors. We show with water waves that a sudden change of the effective gravity generates time-reversed waves that refocus at the source. We generalize this concept for all kinds of waves introducing a universal framework which explains the effect of any time disruption on wave propagation. We show that sudden changes of the medium properties generate instant wave sources that emerge instantaneously from the entire space at the time disruption. The time-reversed waves originate from these "Cauchy sources" which are the counterpart of Huygens virtual sources on a time boundary. It allows us to revisit the holographic method and introduce a new approach for wave control.