arXiv subjects

Renaud Parentani

Publications and source records attributed to Renaud Parentani.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2019

Four-wave mixing and enhanced analogue Hawking effect in a nonlinear optical waveguide

We study in detail the scattering of light on a soliton propagating in a waveguide which has been proposed as an experimental system in which one could observe the analogue Hawking effect. When not applying the rotating wave approximation, we show that the linearized wave equation governing perturbations has the same structure as that governing phonon propagation in an atomic Bose condensate. By taking into account the full dispersion relation, we then show that the scattering coefficients encoding the production of photon pairs are amplified by a resonance effect related to the modulation instability occurring in the presence of a continuous wave. When using a realistic example of a silicon nitride waveguide on a silica substrate, we find that a soliton of duration 10 fs would spontaneously emit about one photon pair for every cm it travels, which makes the effect readily observable. This result is confirmed by numerically solving the equation encoding the Kerr nonlinearity and governing the evolution of the full field (soliton plus perturbations). We discuss the link with previous works devoted to the analogue Hawking effect where the pair creation rates were about six orders of magnitude smaller.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2018

Nonlinearities induced by parametric resonance in effectively 1D atomic Bose condensates

We present a numerical study of the dynamical effects following a sudden change of the transverse trapping frequency in an elongated Bose-Einstein condensate, which induces periodic oscillations of the radial density. At early times, we observe an exponential growth of the number of resonant longitudinal phonons, in agreement with the predictions of the Bogoliubov-de Gennes treatment. We then observe an ordered sequence of phenomena induced by the nonlinearities of the system. The first is a loss of the nonseparability of the resonant phonon pairs. This is followed by the saturation of the exponential growth and a strong depletion of condensed atoms. Notably, these effects are well-described by effective 1D dynamics, and are hardly affected by the damping of the radial oscillations. Finally, the atomic spectrum becomes broad, featureless and almost incoherent, in agreement with experimental results. The link between this sequence of events and the preheating scenario in inflationary cosmology is striking, as is the similarity of techniques used to study them.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2018

Gravity waves on modulated flows downstream from an obstacle: The transcritical case

Periodic spatial variations of some parameter arise in analogue gravity experiments aimed at detecting the analogue version of the Hawking effect in a white hole flow. Having the same spatial periodicity as low-frequency dispersive modes, they can induce resonances which significantly modify the scattering coefficients. This has been shown numerically in a previous work [X. Busch et al., Phys. Rev. D 90, 105005 (2014)], but the precise dependence of the low-frequency effective temperature on the amplitude and length of the undulation remains elusive. In this article, using the Korteweg-de Vries equation, we explicitly compute this dependence in the small-amplitude limit and find three regimes of "short", "intermediate" and "long" undulations showing different scaling laws. In the latter, the effective temperature is completely determined by the properties of the undulation, independently of the surface gravity of the analogue white hole flow. These results are extended to a more realistic hydrodynamical model in an appendix.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2017

Controlling and observing nonseparability of phonons created in time-dependent 1D atomic Bose condensates

We study the spectrum and entanglement of phonons produced by temporal changes in homogeneous one-dimensional atomic condensates. To characterize the experimentally accessible changes, we first consider the dynamics of the condensate when varying the radial trapping frequency, separately studying two regimes: an adiabatic one and an oscillatory one. Working in momentum space, we then show that in situ measurements of the density-density correlation function can be used to assess the nonseparability of the phonon state after such changes. We also study time-of-flight (TOF) measurements, paying particular attention to the role played by the adiabaticity of opening the trap on the nonseparability of the final state of atoms. In both cases, we emphasize that commuting measurements can suffice to assess nonseparability. Some recent observations are analyzed, and we make proposals for future experiments.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2017

Assessing degrees of entanglement of phonon states in atomic Bose gases through the measurement of commuting observables

We show that measuring commuting observables can be sufficient to assess that a bipartite state is entangled according to either nonseparability or the stronger criterion of 'steerability'. Indeed, the measurement of a single observable might reveal the strength of the interferences between the two subsystems, as if an interferometer were used. For definiteness we focus on the two-point correlation function of density fluctuations obtained by in situ measurements in homogeneous one-dimensional cold atomic Bose gases. We then compare this situation to that found in transonic stationary flows mimicking a black hole geometry where correlated phonon pairs are emitted on either side of the sonic horizon by the analogue Hawking effect. We briefly apply our considerations to two recent experiments.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2016

Phonon spectrum and correlations in a transonic flow of an atomic Bose gas

Motivated by a recent experiment of J.~Steinhauer, we reconsider the spectrum and the correlations of the phonons spontaneously emitted in stationary transonic flows. The latter are described by "waterfall" configurations which form a one-parameter family of stable flows. For parameters close to their experimental values, in spite of high gradients near the sonic horizon, the spectrum is accurately planckian in the relevant frequency domain, where the temperature differs from the relativistic prediction by less than $10 \%$. We then study the density correlations across the horizon and the non-separable character of the final state. We show that the relativistic expressions provide accurate approximations when the initial temperature is not too high. We also show that the phases of the scattering coefficients introduce a finite shift of the location of the correlations which was so far overlooked. This shift is due to the asymmetry of the flow across the horizon, and persists in the dispersion-less regime. Finally we show how the formation of the sonic horizon modifies both local and non-local density correlations.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2016

Dynamical instabilities and quasi-normal modes, a spectral analysis with applications to black-hole physics

Black hole dynamical instabilities have been mostly studied in specific models. We here study the general properties of the complex-frequency modes responsible for such instabilities, guided by the example of a charged scalar field in an electrostatic potential. We show that these modes are square integrable, have a vanishing conserved norm, and appear in mode doublets or quartets. We also study how they appear in the spectrum and how their complex frequencies subsequently evolve when varying some external parameter. When working on an infinite domain, they appear from the reservoir of quasi-normal modes obeying outgoing boundary conditions. This is illustrated by generalizing, in a non-positive definite Krein space, a solvable model (Friedrichs model) which originally describes the appearance of a resonance when coupling an isolated system to a mode continuum. In a finite spatial domain instead, they arise from the fusion of two real frequency modes with opposite norms, through a process that closely resembles avoided crossing.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2016

Scattering of gravity waves in subcritical flows over an obstacle

We numerically study the scattering coefficients of linear water waves on stationary flows above a localized obstacle. We compare the scattering on trans- and subcritical flows, and then focus on the latter which have been used in recent analog gravity experiments. The main difference concerns the magnitude of the mode amplification: whereas transcritical flows display a large amplification (which is generally in good agreement with the Hawking prediction), this effect is heavily suppressed in subcritical flows. This is due to the transmission across the obstacle for frequencies less than some critical value. As a result, subcritical flows display high- and low-frequency behaviors separated by a narrow band around the critical frequency. In the low-frequency regime, transmission of long wavelengths is accompanied by non-adiabatic scattering into short wavelengths, whose spectrum is approximately linear in frequency. By contrast, in the high-frequency regime, no simple description seems to exist. In particular, for obstacles similar to those recently used, we observe that the upstream slope still affects the scattering on the downstream side because of some residual transmission.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2016

No hair theorems for analogue black holes

We show that transonic one dimensional flows which are analogous to black holes obey no-hair theorems both at the level of linear perturbations and in non-linear regimes. Considering solutions of the Gross-Pitaevskii (or Korteweg-de Vries) equation, we show that stationary flows which are asymptotically uniform on both sides of the horizon are stable and act as attractors. Using Whitham's modulation theory, we analytically characterize the emitted waves when starting from uniform perturbations. Numerical simulations confirm the validity of this approximation and extend the results to more general perturbations and to the (non-integrable) cubic-quintic Gross-Pitaevskii equation. When considering time reversed flows that correspond to white holes, the asymptotically uniform flows are unstable to sufficiently large perturbations and emit either a macroscopic undulation in the supersonic side, or a non-linear superposition of soliton trains.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2015

Slow Sound in a duct, effective transonic flows and analogue black holes

We propose a new system suitable for studying analogue gravity effects, consisting of a gas flowing in a duct with a compliant wall. Effective transonic flows are obtained from uniform, low Mach number flows through the reduction of the one-dimensional speed of sound induced by the wall compliance. We show that the modified equation for linear perturbations can be written in a Hamiltonian form. We perform a one-dimensional reduction consistent with the canonical formulation, and deduce the analogue metric along with the first dispersive term. In a weak dispersive regime, the spectrum emitted from a sonic horizon is numerically shown to be Planckian, and with a temperature fixed by the analogue surface gravity.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2015

Mode mixing in sub- and trans-critical flows over an obstacle: When should Hawking's predictions be recovered?

We reexamine the scattering coefficients of shallow water waves blocked by a stationary counter current over an obstacle. By considering series of background flows, we show that the most relevant parameter is $F_{\rm max}$, the maximal value of the ratio of the flow velocity over the speed of low frequency waves. For subcritical flows, i.e., $F_{\rm max} < 1$, there is no analogue Killing horizon and the mode amplification is strongly suppressed. Instead, when $F_{\rm max} \gtrsim 1.1$, the amplification is enhanced at low frequency and the spectrum closely follows Hawking's prediction. We further study subcritical flows close to that used in the Vancouver experiment. Our numerical analysis suggests that their observation of the "thermal nature of the mode conversion" is due to the relatively steep slope on the upstream side and the narrowness of the obstacle.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2015

Black hole radiation in the presence of a universal horizon

In Hořava and Einstein-Æther theories of modified gravity, in spite of the violation of Lorentz invariance, spherically-symmetric stationary black hole solutions possess an inner universal horizon which separates field configurations into two disconnected classes. We compute the late time radiation emitted by a dispersive field propagating in such backgrounds. We fix the initial conditions on stationary modes by considering a regular collapsing geometry, and imposing that the state inside the infalling shell is vacuum. We find that the mode pasting across the shell is adiabatic at late time (large inside frequencies). This implies that large black holes emit a thermal flux with a temperature fixed by the surface gravity of the Killing horizon. In turn, this suggests that the universal horizon should play no role in the thermodynamical properties of these black holes.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2015

Hawking radiation in the presence of high-momentum dissipation

We study the Hawking radiation in field theories which break Lorentz invariance via dissipative effects above a certain energy scale. We assume that the additional degrees of freedom which cause dissipation are Gaussian and freely falling. The asymptotic spectrum and the correlations are extracted from the anticommutator of the radiation field. The singular behavior of the Green function found for relativistic fields as one point crosses the horizon is completely suppressed by dissipation. Yet, when the dissipative frequency scale is much larger than the surface gravity of the black hole, we show that the asymptotic observables acquire their standard (relativistic) vacuum expectation values. We explicitly compute the effects of dissipation on the spectrum and on the nonseparable character of the correlations when varying the dissipative scale, the extension of the near-horizon geometry, and the temperature of the environment.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2015

Non-linear effects in time-dependent transonic flows: An analysis of analogue black hole stability

We study solutions of the one-dimensional Gross-Pitaevskii equation to better understand dynamical instabilities occurring in flowing atomic condensates. Whereas transonic stationary flows can be fully described in simple terms, time-dependent flows exhibit a wide variety of behaviors. When the sound speed is crossed once, we observe that flows analogous to black holes obey something similar to the so-called no hair theorem since their late time profile is stationary and uniquely fixed by parameters entering the Hamiltonian and conserved quantities. For flows analogous to white holes, at late time one finds a macroscopic undulation in the supersonic side which has either a fixed amplitude, or a widely varying one signaling a quasi periodic emission of solitons on the subsonic side. When considering flows which cross the sound speed twice, we observe various scenarios which can be understood from the above behaviors, and from the hierarchy of the growth rates of the dynamical instabilities characterizing such flows.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2015

Suppression of infrared instability in trans-sonic flows by condensation of zero-frequency short wave length phonons

We analyze the peculiar infrared instability that characterizes stationary inhomogeneous flows when their velocity crosses the sound speed by decreasing values. For definiteness, we work in the context of one dimensional atomic Bose condensates. These flows are unstable under ultra low real frequency perturbations because of the unbounded mode amplification near the sonic horizon. This results in a condensation of low frequency phonons which produces a spatially structured flow in the supersonic domain. Numerical simulations reveal that this zero-frequency undulation suppresses the instability when its spatial extension is infinite, and when its phase is near that of a "shadow soliton" solution attached to the sonic horizon. These phenomena are akin to the condensation of rotons in flowing superfluid helium-4 when exceeding the Landau velocity. They also pertain to shallow water waves propagating on transcritical flows.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2015

Wave blocking and partial transmission in subcritical flows over an obstacle

We study and measure the transmission coefficient of counter-propagating shallow-water waves produced by a wave generator and scattered by an obstacle. To precisely compare theoretical predictions and experimental data, we consider $\sim 25$ frequencies for 5 subcritical background flows, where the maximum value of the Froude number ranges from $0.5$ to $0.75$. For each flow, the transmission coefficient displays a sharp transition separating total transmission from wave-blocking. Both the width and the central frequency of the transition are in good agreement with their theoretical values. The shape of the obstacle is identical to that used by the Vancouver team in the recent experiment aiming at detecting the analogue of stimulated Hawking radiation. Our results are compatible with the observations that have been reported. They complete them by establishing that the contribution of the transmission coefficient cannot be neglected for the lower half of the probed frequency range.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2015

Gray-body factor and infrared divergences in 1D BEC acoustic black holes

It is shown that the gray-body factor for a one-dimensional elongated Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) acoustic black hole with one horizon does not vanish in the low-frequency ($ω\to 0$) limit. This implies that the analog Hawking radiation is dominated by the emission of an infinite number ($\frac{1}ω$) of soft phonons in contrast with the case of a Schwarzschild black hole where the gray-body factor vanishes as $ω\to 0$ and the spectrum is not dominated by low-energy particles. The infrared behaviors of certain correlation functions are also discussed.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2014

Hawking radiation with dispersion: The broadened horizon paradigm

To identify what replaces the key notion of black hole horizon when working with theories which break Lorentz invariance at high energy, we study the modes responsible for the Hawking effect in the presence of high frequency dispersion. We show that they are regularized across the horizon over a short length which only depends on the scale of dispersion and the surface gravity. Moreover, outside this width, short and long wavelength modes no longer mix. These results can be used to show that the spectrum is hardly modified by dispersion as long as the background geometry does not vary significantly over this length. For relevant frequencies, the regularization differs from the usual WKB resolution of wave singularity near a turning point.

gr-qc↗