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Survey of Analogue Spacetimes

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Analogue Gravity Phenomenology

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Physics ((LNP,volume 870))

Abstract

Analogue spacetimes (and more boldly, analogue models both of and for gravity), have attracted significant and increasing attention over the last decade and a half. Perhaps the most straightforward physical example, which serves as a template for most of the others, is Bill Unruh’s model for a dumb hole,(mute black hole, acoustic black hole), wherein sound is dragged along by a moving fluid—and can even be trapped behind an acoustic horizon. This and related analogue models for curved spacetimes are useful in many ways: analogue spacetimes provide general relativists with extremely concrete physical models to help focus their thinking, and conversely the techniques of curved spacetime can sometimes help improve our understanding of condensed matter and/or optical systems by providing an unexpected and countervailing viewpoint. In this chapter, I shall provide a few simple examples of analogue spacetimes as general background for the rest of the contributions.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Marsden Fund, and by a James Cook Research Fellowship, both administered by the Royal Society of New Zealand.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mathematics, Statistics, and Operations Research, Victoria University of Wellington, PO Box 600, Wellington, 6140, New Zealand

    Matt Visser

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  1. Matt Visser
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Engineering and Physical Science, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

    Daniele Faccio

  2. Dipartimento di Matematica, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy

    Francesco Belgiorno

  3. Dipartimento di Fisica e Matematica, Universita’ dell’Insubria, Como, Italy

    Sergio Cacciatori

  4. Dipartimento di Fisica e Matematica, Universita’ dell’Insubria, Como, Italy

    Vittorio Gorini

  5. Int. School for Adv. Studies (SISSA), Trieste, Italy

    Stefano Liberati

  6. Dipartimento di Fisica e Matematica, Universita’ dell’Insubria, Como, Italy

    Ugo Moschella

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Visser, M. (2013). Survey of Analogue Spacetimes. In: Faccio, D., Belgiorno, F., Cacciatori, S., Gorini, V., Liberati, S., Moschella, U. (eds) Analogue Gravity Phenomenology. Lecture Notes in Physics, vol 870. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-00266-8_2

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