Time reversal and holography with spacetime transformations

• Published in: Nature physics Vol. 12; no. 10; pp. 972 - 977
• Main Authors: Bacot, Vincent, Labousse, Matthieu, Eddi, Antonin, Fink, Mathias, Fort, Emmanuel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 01.10.2016; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 639/766; 639/766/189; 639/766/400; Atomic; Boundaries; Classical and Continuum Physics; Complex Systems; Condensed Matter Physics; Disruption; Engineering; Gravitation; Gravity; Holography; Mathematical and Computational Physics; Molecular; Optical and Plasma Physics; Physics; Spacetime; Theoretical; Transformations; Water waves; Wave propagation
• ISSN: 1745-2473; 1745-2481
• DOI: 10.1038/nphys3810

Wave control is usually performed by spatially engineering the properties of a medium. Because time and space play similar roles in wave propagation, manipulating time boundaries provides a complementary approach. Here, we experimentally demonstrate the relevance of this concept by introducing instantaneous time mirrors. We show with water waves that a sudden change of the effective gravity generates time-reversed waves that refocus at the source. We generalize this concept for all kinds of waves, introducing a universal framework which explains the effect of any time disruption on wave propagation. We show that sudden changes of the medium properties generate instant wave sources that emerge instantaneously from the entire space at the time disruption. The time-reversed waves originate from these ‘Cauchy sources’, which are the counterpart of Huygens virtual sources on a time boundary. It allows us to revisit the holographic method and introduce a new approach for wave control. Using a water bath subject to a sudden vertical jolt — representing a change in the effective gravity — researchers demonstrate the concept of a ‘time mirror’, where time-reversed waves return to their point source following a downward jolt.