Evanescent modes and step-like acoustic black holes

Abstract

We consider a model of an acoustic black hole formed by a quasi-one dimensional Bose–Einstein condensate with a step-like horizon. This system is analyzed by solving the corresponding Bogoliubov–de Gennes equation with an appropriate matching condition at the jump. When the step is between a subsonic and supersonic flow, a sonic horizon develops and in addition to the scattering coefficients we compute the distribution of the accompanying analogue Hawking radiation. Additionally, in response to the abrupt variation in flow and non-linear Bogoliubov dispersion relation, evanescent solutions of the Bogoliubov–de Gennes equation also appear and decay out from the horizon. We bound this decay length and show that these modes produce a modulation of observables outside the event horizon by their interference with outgoing Hawking flux. We go further and find specific superpositions of ingoing eigenmodes which exhibit coherent cancellation of the Hawking flux outside the horizon but nevertheless have evanescent support outside the black hole. We conclude by speculating that when quasiparticle interactions are included, evanescent modes may yield a leakage of information across the event horizon via interactions between the real outgoing Hawking flux and the virtual evanescent modes, and that we may expect this as a generic feature of models which break Lorentz invariance at the UV (Planck) scale.