Wavefronts and Light Cones for Kerr Spacetimes

TL;DR

This paper uses simulations of wavefronts and light cones to explore how light propagates near rotating black holes, revealing back scattering and winding effects, with a new visualization tool called JWFront.

Contribution

It introduces JWFront, a Java-based interactive program for visualizing light propagation in Kerr spacetimes, providing new insights into black hole light behavior.

Findings

Wavefronts are back scattered around black holes.

Light cones exhibit winding effects due to black hole rotation.

Simulations enhance understanding of light behavior near Kerr black holes.

Abstract

We investigate the light propagation by means of simulations of wavefronts and light cones for Kerr spacetimes. Simulations of this kind give us a new insight to better understand the light propagation in presence of massive rotating black holes. A relevant result is that wavefronts are back scattered with winding around the black hole. To generate these visualizations, an interactive computer program with a graphical user interface, called JWFront, was written in Java.