Lecturer: Prof. Ulf Leonhardt
Affiliation: Weizmann Institute of Science
Abstract:
Transformation optics has been inspired by
concepts taken from general relativity,
showing that ideas from general relativity can
be put to practical use for engineering
problems. For example, invisibility cloaking
relies on optical transformations of space that
are related to coordinate transformations.
Such transformations are implemented with
suitable optical materials, using the idea that
optical materials behave like space-time
geometries. The coordinate invariance of
general relativity guarantees that the
transformation - the optical illusion - remains
undetectable, at least in principle, making a
perfect cloaking device. The lecture asks the
question whether this debt to general relativity
can be repaid. What can general relativity
learn from transformation optics? Two
examples are discussed: Hawking radiation of
black holes and the enigma of dark energy.