Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: Rotating black holes can amplify incident waves through superradiant scattering. When these waves are confined, repeated amplification gives rise to the black-hole bomb instability, whose nonlinear evolution remains poorly understood despite its central role in models of bosonic clouds around astrophysical black holes. Here, we reproduce the black-hole bomb mechanism in a laboratory setting using a gravity simulator based on a draining vortex in superfluid helium. Surface waves propagating on the superfluid interface experience an effective rotating spacetime and undergo repeated superradiant amplification within a cylindrical cavity. By tuning the temperature and flow parameters, we achieve exponential growth of a low-frequency resonant mode, followed by the arrest of the instability and the formation of a long-lived non-equilibrium steady state. Using spatially and temporally resolved measurements, we identify nonlinear frequency shifts, harmonic generation, and coherent three- and four-wave mixing that redistribute energy among interacting modes. This novel end state of the experimental black-hole bomb highlights the role of nonlinear wave interactions in quenching the runaway growth expected from linear theory and governing the system's late-time dynamics. Our results establish a laboratory framework for investigating the nonlinear evolution of black-hole bombs, with implications for analogous phenomena involving ultralight bosonic fields around rotating black holes.
Source: arXiv (Cornell University)
Language: English
Subfield: Nuclear and High Energy Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funders: Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, UK Research and Innovation, Government of Canada, Leverhulme Trust, Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo, Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico, Institut Périmètre de physique théorique, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, Science and Technology Facilities Council
Awards: G1576980320, G1660176435, G1862327296, Quantum Simulators for Fundamental Physics, Quantum Simulators for Fundamental Physics, Scratching the Surface of Quantum Liquids with Wave-Vortex Interactions, G7203461112, G7394495519, Quantum Simulators for Fundamental Physics, G8651634182, G878721100
OpenAlex ID: W7212005506