Paper detail

Survey of analogue spacetimes

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 introductory chapter, I shall provide a few simple examples of analogue spacetimes as general background for the rest of the contributions.