Relativistic Effects of Light in Moving Media with Extremely Low Group Velocity

Abstract

A moving dielectric medium acts as an effective gravitational field on light. One can use media with extremely low group velocities [Lene Vestergaard Hau et al., Nature (London) 397, 594 (1999)] to create dielectric analogs of astronomical effects on Earth. In particular, a vortex flow imprints a long-ranging topological effect on incident light and can behave like an optical black hole.