Jeff Steinhauer, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology
We observe a thermal distribution of Hawking radiation, stimulated by quantum vacuum fluctuations, emanating from an analogue black hole. This confirms Hawking’s prediction regarding black hole thermodynamics. The thermal distribution is accompanied by correlations between the Hawking particles outside the black hole and the partner particles inside. We find that the high energy pairs of Hawking and partner particles are entangled, while the low energy pairs are not. This has implications for the problem of information loss in a black hole. The observation of Hawking radiation reported here verifies Hawking’s calculation, which is viewed as a milestone in the quest for quantum gravity.