Ergoregion in Metamaterials Mimicking a Kerr Spacetime

TL;DR

This paper introduces a transformation optics-based metamaterial design that simulates the ergoregion of a Kerr black hole, enabling the study of light behavior in rotating spacetime analogs.

Contribution

It presents a novel, singularity-free coordinate transformation for Maxwell's equations to mimic Kerr black hole ergoregions using metamaterials.

Findings

Numerical simulations confirm light behaves as in a Kerr ergoregion.

Metamaterials designed exhibit the predicted rotation effects.

The approach provides a new platform for studying black hole analogs.

Abstract

We propose a simple singularity-free coordinate transformation that could be implemented in Maxwell's equations in order to simulate one aspect of a Kerr black hole. Kerr black holes are known to force light to rotate in a predetermined direction inside the ergoregion. By making use of cosmological analogies and the theoretical framework of transformation optics, we have designed a metamaterial that can make light behave as if it is propagating around a rotating cosmological massive body. We present numerical simulations involving incident Gaussian beams interacting with the materials to verify our predictions. The ergoregion is defined through the dispersion curve of the off-axis permittivities components.