Reaction-Diffusion Waves as a Black Hole Event Horizon Analogue

Hydrodynamic systems have been build to model the interaction between electromagnetic waves and black/white hole event horizons using gravity waves in water tanks as they behave analogously to electromagnetic waves traveling through space-time. We present a further scaled-down table-top size experiment using a chemical reaction-diffusion (RD) system, the Belousov-Zhabotinsky (RD) reaction. These RD waves propagate forward without any mass transport. When moving in a channel with a flow-rate gradient it is possible to achieve a situation when the medium's flow rate equals the propagation speed of the BZ wave front, creating the illusion of a stationary wave, the black/white hole horizon.