Light on the horizon

One of the fundamental aspects of science, and in particular of physics, is the unification of different phenomena under the same framework.

In this talk, I will first argue that the Hawking effect, usually related to event horizons in astrophysical black holes, can be extended to other physical systems as Bose-Einstein condensates or light pulses in optical fibers. The emitted radiation is the analog Hawking radiation. Then, I will describe a recent experiment where the classical analog of the Hawking radiation was measured in the optical table, including a signal with negative frequency. The new signals are produced by the nonlinear interaction of two ultrashort pulses in a photonic crystal fiber. We called this the extreme nonlinear optics regime. Finally, I will talk about the theoretical, numerical and experimental evidence that supports this claim.