Physics in Canada / La Physique au Canada - 2010 (66.2)

Analog gravity and black holes

Author(s)
William G. Unruh
Institution
University of British Columbia

Black hole evaporation, Hawking’s surprising 1974 discovery that black holes should emit thermal radiation, is still poorly understood, but the analogy with supersonic waterfalls in fluid mechanics is elucidating the origin of this radiation.