Chronology protection in a toy surface plasmon "time machine"

TL;DR

This paper predicts that electromagnetic field enhancement near nanoholes in metal films prevents the operation of toy surface plasmon 'time machines', offering insights into nonlinear optical behaviors.

Contribution

It provides a general prediction of electromagnetic field enhancement preventing the functioning of toy surface plasmon 'time machines' near effective event horizons.

Findings

Strong electromagnetic field enhancement occurs near nanoholes.

This enhancement likely prevents the 'time machine' from working.

Implications for nonlinear optical behavior in nanostructured metals.

Abstract

Recently introduced toy surface plasmon "black holes" and "wormholes" (New Journal of Physics 5, 147.1-147.8 (2003), and gr-qc/0306089) can be used to create a toy "time machine" according to a number of published designs (see for example I.D. Novikov, Sov.Phys.JETP 68, 439 (1989)). Assuming that such a toy "time machine" does not work, a general prediction can be made of strong electromagnetic field enhancement inside an arbitrarily-shaped nanohole near an arising effective event horizon, which is supposed to prevent the toy "time machine" from being operational. This general result is useful in description of the nonlinear optical behavior of random nanoholes in metal films.