Black hole and baby universe in a thin film of 3He-A

Abstract

Condensed matter black hole analogues may provide guidance in grappling with difficult questions about the role of short distance physics in the Hawking effect. These questions bear on the very existence of Hawking radiation, the correlations it may or may not carry, the nature of black hole entropy, and the possible loss of information when a black hole evaporates. We describe a model of black hole formation and evaporation and the loss of information to a disconnected universe in a thin film of 3He-A, and we explain why the existence of Hawking radiation has not yet been demonstrated in this model. [We would like this article to be accessible to researchers in both condensed matter and gravitational physics, hence we include more than the usual amount of introductory material.]