Journal
OPTICS EXPRESS
Volume 21, Issue 12, Pages 14918-14925Publisher
OPTICAL SOC AMER
DOI: 10.1364/OE.21.014918
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Funding
- NSF [DMR-1104676]
- Direct For Mathematical & Physical Scien
- Division Of Materials Research [1104676] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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Extraordinary light rays propagating inside a hyperbolic metamaterial look similar to particle world lines in a 2 + 1 dimensional Minkowski spacetime. 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 n(H). Here we investigate optical properties of such a metamaterial just below n(H). 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. (C) 2013 Optical Society of America
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