A Visualization of Null Geodesics for the Bonnor Massive Dipole

TL;DR

This paper presents a symbolic-numerical algorithm for simulating and visualizing null geodesics in the Bonnor massive dipole spacetime, demonstrating light bending effects near a magnetic massive object.

Contribution

It introduces a versatile algorithm capable of visualizing geodesics for any metric, with specific application to the Bonnor massive dipole, including cone and parallel beam configurations.

Findings

Visualized light bending around a magnetic massive object.

Simulated geodesics forming a cone of light beams.

Demonstrated the algorithm's capability for 3D visualization.

Abstract

In this work we simulate null geodesics for the Bonnor massive dipole metric by implementing a symbolic-numerical algorithm in Sage and Python. This program is also capable of visualizing in 3D, in principle, the geodesics for any given metric. Geodesics are launched from a common point, collectively forming a cone of light beams, simulating a solid-angle section of a point source in front of a massive object with a magnetic field. Parallel light beams also were considered, and their bending due to the curvature of the space-time was simulated.