The Cerenkov effect revisited: from swimming ducks to zero modes in gravitational analogs

We present an interdisciplinary review of the generalized Cerenkov emission of radiation from uniformly moving sources in the different contexts of classical electromagnetism, superfluid hydrodynamics, and classical hydrodynamics. The details of each specific physical systems enter our theory via the dispersion law of the excitations. A geometrical recipe to obtain the emission patterns in both real and wavevector space from the geometrical shape of the dispersion law is discussed and applied to a number of cases of current experimental interest. Some consequences of these emission processes onto the stability of condensed-matter analogs of gravitational systems are finally illustrated.Comment: Lecture Notes at the IX SIGRAV School on "Analogue Gravity" in Como, Italy from May 16th-21th, 201

Wave patterns generated by a supersonic moving body in a binary Bose-Einstein condensate

Generation of wave structures by a two-dimensional (2D) object (laser beam) moving in a 2D two-component Bose-Einstein condensate with a velocity greater than the two sound velocities of the mixture is studied by means of analytical methods and systematic simulations of the coupled Gross-Pitaevskii equations. The wave pattern features three regions separated by two Mach cones. Two branches of linear patterns similar to the so-called "ship waves" are located outside the corresponding Mach cones, and oblique dark solitons are found inside the wider cone. An analytical theory is developed for the linear patterns. A particular dark-soliton solution is also obtained, its stability is investigated, and two unstable modes of transverse perturbations are identified. It is shown that for a sufficiently large flow velocity, this instability has a convective character in the reference frame attached to the moving body, which makes the dark soliton effectively stable. The analytical findings are corroborated by numerical simulations. © 2009 The American Physical Society