Description
In the Gravity Laboratory we use fluid systems to investigate curved spacetime and fundamental physics effects that are otherwise difficult to probe directly. Previously the group has used macroscopic water and superfluid vortices to measure analogues of black hole rotational superradiance. Now we aim to test the Unruh effect: the idea that an accelerating observer sees a quantum field - even the quantum vacuum - differently to an inertial one. We'll use the surface waves on a thin film of superfluid helium as our observed 'quantum field'. In particular I will discuss the different optical detection methods planned for such an experiment.