Acoustic horizons and the Hawking effect in polariton fluids of light

TL;DR

This paper explores how polariton fluids of light can simulate quantum fields in curved spacetime, enabling experimental investigation of phenomena like the Hawking effect and superradiance in a controlled setting.

Contribution

It develops a comprehensive theoretical and experimental framework for using polariton fluids as programmable quantum simulators of curved spacetime physics.

Findings

Mapping polariton systems to relativistic field theories

Proposed experimental toolkit for horizon physics measurements

Potential to observe Hawking effect and superradiance phenomena

Abstract

These lecture notes develop polariton fluids of light as programmable simulators of quantum fields on tailored curved spacetimes, with emphasis on acoustic horizons and the Hawking effect. After introducing exciton-polariton physics in semiconductor microcavities, we detail the theoretical tools to study the mean field and the quantum hydrodynamics of this driven-dissipative quantum system. We derive the mapping to relativistic field theories and cast horizon physics as a pseudounitary stationary scattering problem. We present the Gaussian optics circuit that describes observables and fixes detection weights for the horizon modes in near- and far-field measurements. We provide a practical experimental toolkit (phase-imprinted flows, coherent pump-probe spectroscopy, balanced and homodyne detection) and a step-by-step workflow to extract amplification, quadrature squeezing, and entanglement among correlations. Finally, we discuss the potential of this platform to investigate open questions in quantum field theory in curved spacetime, such as near horizon effects and quasinormal modes, as well as other phenomena universal to rotating geometries, from rotational superradiance to dynamical instabilities. We further outline the interplay between rotational superradiance and the Hawking effect, proposing to spatially resolve measurements as a roadmap for `dumb hole spectroscopy' and the study of entanglement dynamics in curved spacetimes.