Spatial dispersion of light rays propagating through a plasma in Kerr spacetime

Abstract

We investigate the propagation of light through a plasma on a background Kerr spacetime via a Hamiltonian formulation. The behaviour of light when propagating through a vacuum and through a plasma is not the same; the convolution of gravitational and plasma effects gives rise to a dispersion in both space and time. The magnitude of the dispersion is a strong function of both the ray frequency and impact parameter. We discuss implications for the detection of gravitationally bent pulsar beams near the Galactic centre.

9 pages, 6 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

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• Hills and holes in the microlensing light curve due to plasma environment around gravitational lens
• Spin dynamics of a millisecond pulsar orbiting closely around a massive black hole
• Gravitational Burst Radiation from Pulsars in the Galactic centre and stellar clusters
• Radio timing in a millisecond pulsar-extreme/intermediate mass ratio binary system