Main >  People >  Silke Weinfurtner
My research is at the interface between quantum technology and fundamental physics. I am interested in the dynamics of the early universe and black holes arising of the interplay between general relativity and quantum fields. I am exploring these effects in laboratory experiments employing analogue gravity systems. My team and I are developing novel optical detection schemes for studying the dynamics of free fluid interfaces at room and ultra-cold temperatures. One led to a patent application (in review) for a High speed 3D air-fluid interface sensor with EnShape GmbH (Jena, Germany).
silke.weinfurtner
@nottingham.ac.uk
  • Mathematical Sciences Building, office in room C03
  • University Park
  • Nottingham
  • NG7 2RD
  • UK

CV

Employment history
Since 2020
Professor at University of Nottingham (UoN)
Since 2019
Leverhulme Trust Research Leaders Fellow at UoN
2017 - 2020
Associate Professor at UoN
Since 2013
Royal Society University Research Fellow at UoN
2013 - 2018
Nottingham Advanced Research Fellow at UoN
2013 - 2017
Proleptic Lecturer at UoN
2013
3 months maternity leave (SISSA, Italy)
2010 - 2013
Advanced Postdoc; supervisor: Stefano Liberati at SISSA (Italy)
2007 - 2010
Postdoctoral Research Fellow; supervisor W.G. Unruh at UBC (Canada)
Education
2003 - 2007
PhD studies at Victoria University of Wellington, (NZ), supervisor Matt Visser
2002 - 2003
Master studies at MPQ, Garching (Germany), supervisor Ignacio Cirac
1997 - 2002
Undergraduate and graduate studies in Theo. Phys. at TUM (Munich, Germany)
1996 - 1997
Undergraduate studies in Applied Physics at the FH, (Munich, Germany)
Awards and Prizes
2019
Leverhulme Trust Research Leadership Award
2019
Visiting Fellowship at the Perimeter Institute, Waterloo, Canada
2018
Buchalter Cosmology Third Prize
2014
Emmy Noether Visiting Fellowship at the Perimeter Institute, Waterloo, Canada
2013
Royal Society University Research Fellowship
2013
Vidi Fellowship from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research
2013
Nottingham Advanced Research Fellowship from The University of Nottingham
2008
Marie Curie Fellowship

Publications

Superfluid helium thin films as quantum field theory simulators for probing information area laws, Maciej T. Jarema, Cameron R. D. Bunney, Vitor S. Barroso, Mohammadamin Tajik, Chris Goodwin, Silke Weinfurtner, npj Quantum Information, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41534-026-01367-z#citeas
End state of the experimental black-hole bomb, Patrik Švančara, Leonardo Solidoro, Pietro Smaniotto, Sam Patrick, Silvia Schiattarella, Maciej T. Jarema, Sean M. D. Gregory, Vitor S. Barroso, Maurício Richartz, Anastasios Avgoustidis, Carlo F. Barenghi, Ruth Gregory, Silke Weinfurtner, arxiv, https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.05595
Experimentally Resolving Gravity-Capillary Wave Evolution in Vessels of Unknown Boundary Conditions, Sean M. D. Gregory, Vitor S. Barroso, Silvia Schiattarella, Anastasios Avgoustidis, Silke Weinfurtner, ArXiv, https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.06891
When is a sloshing vortex an analogue black hole bomb?, Sam Patrick, Leonardo Solidoro, Maurício Richartz, Pietro Smaniotto, Patrik Švančara, Silke Weinfurtner, Ruth Gregory, arXiv, https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.05351
Observation of area laws in an interacting quantum field simulator, Maciej T. Jarema, Mohammadamin Tajik, Jörg Schmiedmayer, Silke Weinfurtner, Tobias Haas, https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.13783
Digital holographic imaging of superfluid helium free surfaces, Vitor S. Barroso, Patrik Švančara, Chris Goodwin, Sreelekshmi C. Ajithkumar, Ilaria Dimina, Silvia Schiattarella, Pietro Smaniotto, Leonardo Solidoro, Marion Cromb, Radivoje Prizia, Anthony J. Kent, Silke Weinfurtner, https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.10235
Information in quantum field theory simulators: Thin-film superfluid helium, Maciej T. Jarema, Cameron R. D. Bunney, Vitor S. Barroso, Mohammadamin Tajik, Chris Goodwin, Silke Weinfurtner, https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.07247
Origin of Quasinormal Modes in Semi-Open Systems, Leonardo Solidoro, Sam Patrick, Ruth Gregory, Silke Weinfurtner., Physical Review Letters, https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/7kjp-vrml
Black-hole spectroscopy from a giant quantum vortex, Pietro Smaniotto, Leonardo Solidoro, Patrik Švančara, Sam Patrick, Maurício Richartz, Carlo F. Barenghi, Ruth Gregory, Silke Weinfurtner., https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.11209
Optical lever for broadband detection of fluid interface fluctuations, Sreelekshmi C. Ajithkumar, Vitor S. Barroso, Patrik Švančara, Anthony J. Kent, Silke Weinfurtner, arXiv, https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.05275
Tracing the nonlinear formation of an interfacial wave spectral cascade from one to few to many, Sean M. D. Gregory, Silvia Schiattarella, Vitor S. Barroso, David I. Kaiser, Anastasios Avgoustidis, Silke Weinfurtner, http://arxiv.org/abs/2410.08842
Rotating curved spacetime signatures from a giant quantum vortex, Patrik Švančara, Pietro Smaniotto, Leonardo Solidoro, James F. MacDonald, Sam Patrick, Ruth Gregory, Carlo F. Barenghi, Silke Weinfurtner, Nature 628, 66–70 (2024)
Vacuum entanglement probes for ultra-cold atom systems, Cisco Gooding, Allison Sachs ,Robert B. Mann, Silke Weinfurtner., https://arxiv.org/abs/2308.07892
Non-linear effective field theory simulators in two-fluid interfaces, Vitor S. Barroso, Cameron R. D. Bunney, Silke Weinfurtner, J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 2531 012003 (2023)
Third sound detectors in accelerated motion, Cameron R. D. Bunney, Steffen Biermann, Vitor S. Barroso, August Geelmuyden, Cisco Gooding, Grégoire Ithier, Xavier Rojas, Jorma Louko, and Silke Weinfurtner, New Journal of Physics
Primary thermalisation mechanism of Early Universe observed from Faraday-wave scattering on liquid-liquid interfaces, Vitor S. Barroso, August Geelmuyden, Zack Fifer, Sebastian Erne, Anastasios Avgoustidis, Richard J.A. Hill , Silke Weinfurtner, https://arxiv.org/abs/2207.02199
Origin and evolution of the multiply-quantised vortex instability, Sam Patrick, August Geelmuyden, Sebastian Erne, Carlo F. Barenghi, Silke Weinfurtner, https://arxiv.org/abs/2111.02567
Superradiant scattering of orbital angular momentum beams, C. Gooding, S. Weinfurtner, and W. G. Unruh, Phys. Rev. Research 3, 023242 (2021)
The sound-ring radiation of expanding vortex clusters, August Geelmuyden, Sebastian Erne, Sam Patrick, Carlo Barenghi, Silke Weinfurtner, https://arxiv.org/abs/2105.11509
Backreaction in an Analogue Black Hole Experiment, S, Patrick, H. Goodhew, C. Gooding and S. Weinfurtner, Phys. Rev. Lett. 126, 041105 (2021)
Interferometric Unruh detectors for Bose-Einstein condensates, Gooding, Cisco and Biermann, Steffen and Erne, Sebastian and Louko, Jorma and Unruh, William G. and Schmiedmayer, Joerg and Weinfurtner, Silke, Phys.Rev.Lett. 125 (2020) 21, 213603
Unruh and analogue Unruh temperatures for circular motion in 3+1 and 2+1 dimensions, Biermann, Steffen and Erne, Sebastian and Gooding, Cisco and Louko, Jorma and Schmiedmayer, Joerg and Unruh, William G. and Weinfurtner, Silke, Phys.Rev.D 102 (2020) 8, 085006
Quasinormal Mode Oscillations in an Analogue Black Hole Experiment, T. Torres, S. Patrick, M. Richartz, and S. Weinfurtner, Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 011301 (2019)
Reinventing the Zel’Dovich wheel, C. Gooding, S. Weinfurtner, and W. G. Unruh, Phys. Rev. A 101, 063819 (2020)
Nonlinear Dynamics of the Cold Atom Analog False Vacuum, Jonathan Braden, Matthew C. Johnson, Hiranya V. Peiris, Andrew Pontzen, Silke Weinfurtner, JHEP 10 (2019) 174, https://arxiv.org/abs/1904.07873
Analogue Black Hole Spectroscopy; or, how to listen to dumb holes, T. Torres, S. Patrick, M. Richartz, and S. Weinfurtner, Class. Quantum Grav. 36 (2019) 194002
A New Semiclassical Picture of Vacuum Decay, Jonathan Braden, Matthew C. Johnson, Hiranya V. Peiris, Andrew Pontzen, Silke Weinfurtner, Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 031601 (2019), https://arxiv.org/abs/1806.06069
Analog cosmology with two-fluid systems in a strong gradient magnetic field, Z. Fifer, T. Torres, S. Erne, A. Avgoustidis, R. J. A. Hill, and S. Weinfurtner, Phys. Rev. E 99, 0311010(R) (2019)
Mimicking inflation with 2-fluid systems in a strong gradient magnetic field, Zack Fifer, Theo Torres, Sebastian Erne, Anastasios Avgoustidis, Richard J. A. Hill, Silke Weinfurtner, Phys. Rev. E 99, 031101 (2019), https://arxiv.org/abs/1801.05843
Waves on a vortex: rays, rings and resonances, T. Torres, A. Coutant, S. Dolan, and S. Weinfurtner, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 857, 291-311 (2017)
Towards the cold atom analog false vacuum, Jonathan Braden, Matthew C. Johnson, Hiranya V. Peiris, Silke Weinfurtner, JHEP 07 (2018) 014, https://arxiv.org/abs/1712.02356
Low frequency analogue Hawking radiation: The Korteweg-de Vries model, Antonin Coutant, Silke Weinfurtner, Phys. Rev. D 97, 025005 (2018), https://arxiv.org/abs/1707.09651
Rotational superradiant scattering in a vortex flow, T.Torres, S. Patrick, A. Coutant, M. Richartz, E. Tedford, and S. Weinfurtner., Nature Phys. 13, 833 (2017)
Detecting Rotational Superradiance in Fluid Laboratories, Vitor Cardoso, Antonin Coutant, Mauricio Richartz, Silke Weinfurtner, Phys. Rev. Lett. 117, 271101 (2016), https://arxiv.org/abs/1607.01378
The imprint of the analogue Hawking effect in subcritical flows, Antonin Coutant, Silke Weinfurtner, Phys. Rev. D 94, 064026 (2016), https://arxiv.org/abs/1603.02746
On the observation of nonclassical excitations in Bose-Einstein condensates, Andreas Finke, Piyush Jain, Silke Weinfurtner, New Journal of Physics, Volume 18, November 2016, https://arxiv.org/abs/1601.06766
Rotating black holes in a draining bathtub: superradiant scattering of gravity waves, Mauricio Richartz, Angus Prain, Stefano Liberati, Silke Weinfurtner, Phys. Rev. D 91, 124018 (2015)
Superradiant scattering of dispersive fields, Maurício Richartz, Angus Prain, Silke Weinfurtner, Stefano Liberati, Class. Quantum Grav. 30, 085009 (2013)
Measurement of stimulated Hawking emission in an analogue system, Silke Weinfurtner, Edmund W. Tedford, Matthew C. J. Penrice, William G. Unruh, Gregory A. Lawrence, Phys. Rev. Lett. 106: 021302, 2011, https://arxiv.org/abs/1008.1911
Analogue model of a FRW universe in Bose-Einstein condensates: Application of the classical field method, Piyush Jain, Silke Weinfurtner, Matt Visser, C. W. Gardiner, Phys. Rev. A 76, 033616 (2007), https://arxiv.org/abs/0705.2077
Analogue spacetime based on 2-component Bose-Einstein condensates, Silke Weinfurtner, Stefano Liberati, Matt Visser, Lect. Notes Phys. 718: 115-163, 2007, https://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0605121
Naturalness in emergent spacetime, Stefano Liberati, Matt Visser, Silke Weinfurtner, Phys.Rev.Lett. 96 (2006) 151301, https://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0512139
Analogue quantum gravity phenomenology from a two-component Bose-Einstein condensate, Stefano Liberati, Matt Visser, Silke Weinfurtner, Class.Quant.Grav. 23 (2006) 3129-3154, https://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0510125
Vortex geometry for the equatorial slice of the Kerr black hole, Matt Visser, Silke Weinfurtner, Class.Quant.Grav. 22 (2005) 2493-2510, https://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0409014