Flowing liquid crystal simulating the Schwarzschild metric

Abstract

We show how to simulate the equatorial section of the Schwarzschild metric through a flowing liquid crystal in its nematic phase. Inside a liquid crystal in the nematic phase, a traveling light ray feels an effective metric, whose properties are linked to perpendicular and parallel refractive indexes, no and ne respectively, of the rod-like molecule of the liquid crystal. As these indexes depend on the scalar order parameter of the liquid crystal, the Beris-Edwards hydrodynamic theory is used to connect the order parameter with the velocity of a liquid crystal flow at each point. This way we calculate a radial velocity profile that simulates the equatorial section of the Schwarzschild metric, in the region outside of Schwarzschild's radius, in the nematic phase of the liquid crystal. In our model, the higher flow velocity can be on the order of some meters per second. © 2011 Versita Warsaw and Springer-Verlag Wien.