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Science 7 March 2008:
Vol. 319. no. 5868, pp. 1367 - 1370
DOI: 10.1126/science.1153625
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Reports

Fiber-Optical Analog of the Event Horizon

Thomas G. Philbin,1,2 Chris Kuklewicz,1 Scott Robertson,1 Stephen Hill,1 Friedrich König,1 Ulf Leonhardt1*

The physics at the event horizon resembles the behavior of waves in moving media. Horizons are formed where the local speed of the medium exceeds the wave velocity. We used ultrashort pulses in microstructured optical fibers to demonstrate the formation of an artificial event horizon in optics. We observed a classical optical effect: the blue-shifting of light at a white-hole horizon. We also showed by theoretical calculations that such a system is capable of probing the quantum effects of horizons, in particular Hawking radiation.

1 School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews, North Haugh, St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9SS, UK.
2 Max Planck Research Group of Optics, Information and Photonics, Günther-Scharowsky-Strasse 1, Bau 24, D-91058 Erlangen, Germany.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: ulf{at}st-andrews.ac.uk

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