An analog of the dynamical Casimir effect has been achieved, where phonons replace photons and thermal fluctuations replace vacuum fluctuations.
Empty space is constantly fluctuating with virtual photons, which come into existence and vanish almost immediately. While these virtual photons are all around us, they cannot be observed directly. However, in a special kind of environment with spatial or temporal inhomogeneity, virtual photons can become real, observable photons by means of a variety of effects. Unfortunately, creating such environments can be exceedingly difficult.
The challenge can be made easier by using a condensed-matter analog to the vacuum and its photon modes [1]. In Physical Review Letters, Jean-Christophe Jaskula and colleagues at the University of Paris-Sud, France, report that they have created such an analog for the dynamical Casimir effect, in which a rapidly changing resonator (Fig. 1) produces real particles [2].
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