  The two main predictions of quantum field theory in curved space-time, namely
Hawking radiation and cosmological pair production, have not been directly
tested and involve ultra high energy configurations. As a consequence, they
should be considered with caution. Using the analogy with condensed matter
systems, their analogue versions could be tested in the lab. Moreover, the high
energy behavior of these systems is known and involves dispersion and
dissipation, which regulate the theory at short distances. When considering
experiments which aim to test the above predictions, there will also be a
competition between the stimulated emission from thermal noise and the
spontaneous emission out of vacuum. In order to measure these effects, one
should thus compute the consequences of UV dispersion and dissipation, and
identify observables able to establish that the spontaneous emission took
place. In this thesis, we first analyze the effects of dispersion and
dissipation on both Hawking radiation and pair particle production. To get
explicit results, we work in the context of de Sitter space. Using the extended
symmetries of the theory in such a background, exact results are obtained.
These are then transposed to the context of black holes using the
correspondence between de Sitter space and the black hole near horizon region.
To introduce dissipation, we consider an exactly solvable model producing any
decay rate. We also study the quantum entanglement of the particles so
produced. In a second part, we consider explicit condensed matter systems,
namely Bose Einstein condensates and exciton-polariton systems. We analyze the
effects of dissipation on entanglement produced by the dynamical Casimir
effect. As a final step, we study the entanglement of Hawking radiation in the
presence of dispersion for a generic analogue system.
