Analogue gravity and ultrashort laser pulse filamentation

Ultrashort laser pulse filaments in dispersive nonlinear Kerr media induce a moving refractive index perturbation which modifies the spacetime geometry as seen by co-propagating light rays. We study the analogue geometry induced by the filament and show that one of the most evident features of filamentation, namely conical emission, may be precisely reconstructed from the geodesics. We highlight the existence of favorable conditions for the study of analogue black hole kinematics and Hawking-type radiation. Copyright (C) EPLA, 2010