Zero-point excitation of a circularly moving detector in an atomic condensate and phonon laser dynamical instabilities

Abstract: We study a circularly moving impurity in an atomic condensate for the realisation of superradiance phenomena in tabletop experiments. The impurity is coupled to the density fluctuations of the condensate and, in a quantum field theory language, it serves as an analog of a detector for the quantum phonon field. For sufficiently large rotation speeds, the zero-point fluctuations of the phonon field induce a sizeable excitation rate of the detector even when the condensate is initially at rest in its ground state. For spatially confined condensates and harmonic detectors, such a superradiant emission of sound waves provides a dynamical instability mechanism leading to a new concept of phonon lasing. Following an analogy with the theory of rotating black holes, our results suggest a promising avenue to quantum simulate basic interaction processes involving fast moving detectors in curved space-times.