
Benchtop Black Hole Analogues Help Physicists Glimpse the Quantum Universe - dnetesn
http://nautil.us/blog/benchtop-black-holes-help-physicists-glimpse-the-quantum-universe
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ccvannorman
The problem with "analogue" black holes is that they are modeling what we
think we already know about black holes. So we've essentially looked up at
space, said "There's a weird thing that breaks the laws of physics and works
like XYZ, so let's model exactly XYZ to see if the behaviors match up to
predictions in the lab."

You shouldn't expect to find any surprises if your lab mockup of the thing
you're studying is based off the predictive models.

To find something novel you need something that actually does break the laws
of physics, not something that will merely produce the same result if our
assumptions about the object were correct. It's kind of a tautology.

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sevenless
I think it's more that, they are systems that model what we know about
_gravity and light_ , just taken to an extreme point where light can't escape.
That speculation is where the notion of black holes came from in the first
place. If you have a physical system that behaves like gravity and light in
some way and is easier to study, it's pretty reasonable to turn the dial up to
a point where analog-light can't escape from analog-gravity and see if it can
confirm your theories about black holes. It could quite easily lead to
surprises.

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ThePhysicist
Another system that can model curved space times (and singularities) is a
simple chain of coupled pendula, or alternatively a long Josephson junction,
which has the same equation of motion.

The system can have a soliton solution (a 360 degree twist in the chain) that
travels along the chain. The spacetime curvature along the soliton (i.e. the
frequency dispersion relation for small harmonic waves on top of the solution)
exhibits an event horizon. But like with the other system, the analogy does
not teach us anything novel about curved spacetimes, though it can allow for
some interesting phenomena.

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edem
So how does this "benchtop" version work?

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imglorp
Benchtop black hole _analogue_.

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posterboy
If you need to use a form of the word true to the roots, use _analogon_ and
why stop there, ἀνάλογον is just a 'setxkbmap gr' away (or whatever you'd use,
this actually took me a bit to find out).

Otherwise, analog is fine, isn't it?

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imglorp
Agreed for US spelling. TFA chose the Queen's spelling for some reason so I
just passed it on.

