Fiber-optical analogue of the event horizon

Understand

The physics at the event horizon resembles the behavior of waves in moving media.

• Horizons are formed where the local speed of the medium exceeds the wave velocity.
• We use ultrashort pulses in microstructured optical fibers to demonstrate the formation of an artificial event horizon in optics.
• We observed a classical optical effect, the blue-shifting of light at a white-hole horizon.