Kerr spacetime geometric optics for vortex beams

Abstract

We apply the analogy between gravitational fields and optical media in the general relativistic geometric optics framework to describe how light can acquire orbital angular momentum (OAM) when it traverses the gravitational field of a massive rotating compact object and the interplay between OAM and polarization. Kerr spacetimes are known not only to impose a gravitational Faraday rotation on the polarization of a light beam, but also to set a characteristic fingerprint in the orbital angular momentum distribution of the radiation passing nearby a rotating black hole (BH). Kerr spacetime behaves like an inhomogeneous and anisotropic medium, in which light can acquire orbital angular momentum and spin-to-orbital angular momentum conversion can occur, acting as a polarization and phase changing medium for the gravitationally lensed light, as confirmed by the data analysis of M87* black hole.

arXiv comment9 pages, 1 figure

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Cited by in corpus (11)

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• Strong deflection limit analysis of black hole lensing in inhomogeneous plasma
• Constraining the Generalized Uncertainty Principle with the light twisted by rotating black holes and M87*
• On spin optics for gravitational waves lensed by a rotating object
• Interferometric signature of higher-order images in a parametrized framework
• Lensing Stability and Scattering Phenomena in Anisotropic Black Hole Spacetimes in Plasma
• Gravitational orbital Hall effect of vortex light in Lense-Thirring metric
• Testing the Wave-Particle Duality of Gravitational Wave Using the Spin-Orbital-Hall Effect of Structured Light
• The motion of twisted particles in a stellar gravitational field
• Gravitational Faraday rotation of light propagation in the Kerr-Newman-Taub-NUT space-time
• Charge constraint on M87* with twisted light