We study a circularly moving impurity in an atomic condensate for the realization 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 sizable 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 phonon lasing concept. 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.

• Received 23 January 2020
• Accepted 23 September 2020

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.2.042009

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Published by the American Physical Society