Cloaks, editors, and bubbles: applications of spacetime transformation theory

Abstract

Spacetime or ‘event’ cloaking was recently introduced as a concept, and the theoretical design for such a cloak was presented for illumination by electromagnetic waves [McCall et al., J. Opt. 2011]. Here it is described how event cloaks can be designed for simple wave systems, using either an approximate ‘speed cloak’ method, or an exact full‐wave one. Further, details of many of the implications of spacetime transformation devices are discussed, including their (usually) directional nature, spacetime distortions (as opposed to cloaks), and how leaky cloaks manifest themselves. More exotic concepts are also addressed, in particular concepts that follow naturally on from considerations of simple spacetime transformation devices, such as spacetime modeling and causality editors. A proposal for implementing an interrupt‐without‐interrupt concept is described. Finally, the design for a time‐dependent ‘bubbleverse’ is presented, based on temporally modulated Maxwell's Fisheye transformation device (T‐device) in a flat background spacetime.