Light propagation in Kerr spacetime

TL;DR

This paper derives the detailed behavior of electromagnetic waves in Kerr spacetime, including polarization and trajectory deviations, revealing the gravitational spin Hall effect through explicit solutions.

Contribution

It provides the first explicit solution for electromagnetic wave propagation up to subleading order in Kerr spacetime, including polarization and trajectory deviations.

Findings

Derived wavelength-dependent trajectory deviations

Described polarization propagation in Kerr spacetime

Mathematically characterized the gravitational spin Hall effect

Abstract

We explicitly solve the equations for the propagation of an electromagnetic wave up to the subleading order geometric optics expansion in the Kerr spacetime. This is done in two nontrivial steps. We first construct a set of parallel propagated null tetrad in Kerr spacetime. Two of the components of such tetrad give the propagation and polarization of an electromagnetic wave in geometric optics approximation. Then we use the parallel propagated tetrad to solve the modified trajectory equation in Kerr spacetime. We obtain the wavelength-dependent deviation of the trajectory of electromagnetic waves, which gives the mathematical description of the gravitational spin Hall effect in Kerr spacetime.