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Analog regular black holes and black hole mimickers for surface-gravity waves in fluids

Valentin Pomakov* and Stefano Liberati†

  • *Contact author: vpomakov@sissa.it
  • †Contact author: liberati@sissa.it
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Phys. Rev. D 114, 044038 – Published 12 August, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/ypvc-w73q

Abstract

Recent advances in the observation of black-hole candidates have renewed interest in probing their near-horizon structure and in searching for departures from the standard singular solutions of general relativity. In this context, significant effort has been devoted to regular black holes and to horizonless black-hole mimickers, motivated primarily by quantum-gravitational effects. Depending on the value of the regularization parameter relative to the object mass, typical spherically symmetric solutions can describe either of these two scenarios. Regular black-hole configurations generically feature an outer and an inner horizon surrounding a maximally symmetric core; the inner horizon in turn triggers mass inflation and semiclassical instabilities. The horizonless branch of the same solutions, by contrast, supports stable inner light rings when sufficiently compact, yet is itself subject to instabilities associated with long-lived quasinormal modes. Here, we investigate how to emulate these spacetimes in an analog-gravity platform based on surface-gravity waves in a shallow-water basin, with the aim of reproducing these instabilities experimentally. We begin by identifying the flow profiles and boundary conditions required to replicate the relevant effective geometries. In particular, we show that the inner-core metrics can be simulated with a nonrotating central-drainage configuration, and we propose a graded-drainage profile to connect them to an asymptotically flat exterior region. We then assess the experimental feasibility of studying the instabilities mentioned above with current technology. Our conclusion is that, while the required setup is realizable in principle, alternative media, such as Bose-Einstein condensates, may offer a more practical route to faithfully capturing the targeted physical features.

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Outline

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Phys. Rev. D 114, 044038– Published 12 August, 2026
  • Received 23 April 2026
  • Accepted 14 July 2026
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