Acoustic superradiance in a slightly viscous fluid

Abstract

The acoustic analogue of the geometry of curved spacetime realised in a classical fluid becomes Lorentz violating in the presence of viscosity. We study how this effective Lorentz violation affects acoustic superradiance from the ergosphere of a rotating sonic black hole formed in such a fluid. It turns out that Lorentz violation imposes an upper bound on frequencies of acoustic perturbations that can get scattered from the ergosphere. Incidentally, this upper bound is same as that on the spectrum of superradiant frequencies. This study also reveals how superradiance is in general modified when the wave propagates through a dispersive and dissipative medium. Our result is valid only upto linear order in the coefficient of viscosity and is thus a first approximation to the full solution, focussing on the key qualitative features.