Acoustic horizons in nuclear fluids

Abstract

We consider a hydrodynamic description of the spherically symmetric outward flow of nuclear matter, accommodating dispersion in it as a very weak effect. About the resulting stationary conditions in the flow, we apply an Eulerian scheme to derive a fully nonlinear equation of a time-dependent radial perturbation. In its linearized limit, with no dispersion, this equation implies the static acoustic horizon of an analogue gravity model. We, however, show that time-dependent nonlinear effects destabilize the static horizon. We also model the perturbation as a high-frequency travelling wave, and perform a {\it WKB} analysis, in which the effect of weak dispersion is studied iteratively. We show that even arbitrarily small values of dispersion make the horizon fully opaque to any acoustic disturbance propagating against the bulk flow, with the amplitude and the energy flux of the radial perturbation undergoing a discontinuity at the horizon, and decaying exponentially just outside it.