This experimental layout produces a detectable analogue of Hawking radiation. The input laser pulse is focused into a sample of fused silica (FS) using an axicon or lens (F). An imaging lens (I) collects the photons emitted at 90 deg and sends them to an imaging spectrometer coupled to a cooled CCD camera. (Credit: F. Belgiorno, S.L. Cacciatori, M. Clerici, V. Gorini, G. Ortenzi, L. Rizzi, E. Rubino, V.G. Sala, D. Faccio)
A team of Italian scientists has fired a laser beam into a hunk of glass to create what they believe is an optical analogue of the Hawking radiation that many physicists expect is emitted by black holes.
Although the laser experiment superficially bears little resemblance to ultra-dense black holes, the mathematical theories used to describe both are similar enough that confirmation of laser-induced Hawking radiation would bolster confidence that black holes also emit Hawking radiation.