Experimental demonstration of metamaterial multiverse in a ferrofluid
Abstract
Extraordinary light rays propagating inside a hyperbolic metamaterial look similar to particle world lines in a 2+1 dimensional Minkowski spacetime [1]. Magnetic nanoparticles in a ferrofluid are known to form nanocolumns aligned along the magnetic field, so that a hyperbolic metamaterial may be formed at large enough nanoparticle concentration nH. Here we investigate optical properties of such a metamaterial just below nH. While on average such a metamaterial is elliptical, thermal fluctuations of nanoparticle concentration lead to transient formation of hyperbolic regions (3D Minkowski spacetimes) inside this metamaterial. Thus, thermal fluctuations in a ferrofluid look similar to creation and disappearance of individual Minkowski spacetimes (universes) in the cosmological multiverse. This theoretical picture is supported by experimental measurements of polarization-dependent optical transmission of a cobalt based ferrofluid at 1500 nm.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1301.6055,
title = {Experimental demonstration of metamaterial multiverse in a ferrofluid},
author = {Igor I. Smolyaninov and Bradley Yost and Evan Bates and Vera N. Smolyaninova},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1301.6055},
year = {2016}
}
Comments
8 pages, 6 figures, this version is accepted for publication in Optics Express