A FAST NEW PUBLIC CODE FOR COMPUTING PHOTON ORBITS IN A KERR SPACETIME

Journal Article · Sun May 10 00:00:00 EDT 2009 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/696/2/1616; COUNTRY OF INPUT: INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY (IAEA)· OSTI ID:21300644

Dexter, Jason ^[1]; Agol, Eric ^[2]

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1. Department of Physics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195-1560 (United States)
2. Department of Astronomy, University of Washington, Box 351580, Seattle, WA 98195 (United States)

Relativistic radiative transfer problems require the calculation of photon trajectories in curved spacetime. We present a novel technique for rapid and accurate calculation of null geodesics in the Kerr metric. The equations of motion from the Hamilton-Jacobi equation are reduced directly to Carlson's elliptic integrals, simplifying algebraic manipulations and allowing all coordinates to be computed semianalytically for the first time. We discuss the method, its implementation in a freely available FORTRAN code, and its application to toy problems from the literature.

• OSTI ID: 21300644
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 696, Issue 2; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/696/2/1616; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS//MATHEMATICS, COMPUTING, AND INFORMATION SCIENCE
ACCRETION DISKS
BLACK HOLES
EQUATIONS OF MOTION
FORTRAN
GEODESICS
HAMILTON-JACOBI EQUATIONS
KERR METRIC
ORBITS
PHOTONS
RADIANT HEAT TRANSFER
RELATIVISTIC RANGE
SPACE-TIME