Quantum vacuum excitation of a quasi-normal mode in an analog model of black hole spacetime

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that quantum fluctuations near a sonic horizon in an analog black hole model can excite quasi-normal modes, leading to observable density fluctuations and Hawking radiation signatures, revealing a fluctuation-driven excitation mechanism.

Contribution

It introduces a driven-dissipative quantum fluid of microcavity polaritons as an analog model to study quantum field effects on black hole spacetimes, highlighting the excitation of quasi-normal modes.

Findings

Quantum fluctuations can excite quasi-normal modes in the analog model.

Observable density fluctuations indicate quasi-normal mode excitation.

Hawking emission spectra show signatures of these excitations.

Abstract

Vacuum quantum fluctuations near horizons are known to yield correlated emission by the Hawking effect. We use a driven-dissipative quantum fluid of microcavity polaritons as an analog model of a quantum field theory on a black-hole spacetime and numerically calculate correlated emission. We show that, in addition to the Hawking effect at the sonic horizon, quantum fluctuations may result in a sizeable stationary excitation of a quasi-normal mode of the field theory. Observable signatures of the excitation of the quasi-normal mode are found in the spatial density fluctuations as well as in the spectrum of Hawking emission. This suggests an intrinsic fluctuation-driven mechanism leading to the quantum excitation of quasi-normal modes on black hole spacetimes.