Quantum Optical Experiment to Understand Black Holes

Black holes are very intriguing astronomical objects. They do not emit light, so we can only get indirect evidence about their existence. When it comes down to understanding how they change in time, things get more complicated. Stephen Hawking argued that black holes have a finite lifetime. The question that arises then is, what happens to the objects swallowed by a black hole and, in particular, the information carried by them when the black hole evaporates away? Does the information disappear? If so, this would be in contradiction with quantum mechanics, which preserves information. This is known as the information paradox and it is an unresolved problem in physics.

Our project focuses on an quantum optical process, parametric amplification, that is equivalent to the evaporation of a black hole. By using powerful lasers and special crystals we push parametric amplification to a new high-gain regime that might teach us where the information goes in black hole evaporation.

The aim of this overseas collaboration is to exploit the expertise of the German group in high gain parametric amplifcation and our theoretical knowledge on the black hole dynamics. TBC

Faculty Supervisor:

Jeff Lundeen

Student:

Partner:

Max-Planck-Institut für die Physik des Lichts

Discipline:

Physics

Sector:

Education

University:

University of Ottawa

Program: