Probing curved spacetime geometry in a giant quantum vortex flow
Gravity simulators are laboratory systems where small excitations like sound or surface waves behave as fields propagating on a curved spacetime geometry. In this talk, I will discuss a recently developed gravity simulator based on the giant vortex flow in superfluid helium [1] and outline how micron-scale waves on the superfluid-gas interface can be experimentally accessed by synthetic Schlieren imaging [2] and off-axis digital holography [3]. The wave dynamics, being consistent with the theoretical framework describing our system as an effectively curved spacetime, allows laboratory tests of various black-hole phenomena, including the excitation of bound states and black-hole ringdown signatures [3], setting superfluid helium at the forefront of finite-temperature field theory simulations..
[1] P. Svancara et al., Nature 628, 66-70 (2024)
[2] F. Moisy et al., Exp. Fluids 46, 1021-1036 (2009) ; S. Wildeman, Exp. Fluids 59, 97 (2018)
[3] V. Barroso et al., arXiv:2509.10235 (2025)
[4] P. Smaniotto et al., arXiv:2502.1120 (2025)
Contact Nathanaël Machicoane for more information or to schedule a discussion with the seminar speaker.