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Twisting of light around rotating black holes

Nature Physics volume 7, pages 195–197 (2011)Cite this article

Abstract

Kerr black holes are among the most intriguing predictions of Einstein’s general relativity theory1,2. These rotating massive astrophysical objects drag and intermix their surrounding space and time, deflecting and phase-modifying light emitted near them. We have found that this leads to a new relativistic effect that imprints orbital angular momentum on such light. Numerical experiments, based on the integration of the null geodesic equations of light from orbiting point-like sources in the Kerr black hole equatorial plane to an asymptotic observer3, indeed identify the phase change and wavefront warping and predict the associated light-beam orbital angular momentum spectra4. Setting up the best existing telescopes properly, it should be possible to detect and measure this twisted light, thus allowing a direct observational demonstration of the existence of rotating black holes. As non-rotating objects are more an exception than a rule in the Universe, our findings are of fundamental importance.

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Figure 1: Total phase variation of light generated in a region of size 100RS×100RS in the equatorial xy plane of a quasi-extremal rotating black hole (a=0.99) as seen by an asymptotic observer.
Figure 2: Phase variation of photons as measured by an asymptotic observer.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank J. P. Torres, M. Calvani, A. Čadež and M. Berry for helpful comments and suggestions. F.T. gratefully acknowledges the financial support from the CARIPARO Foundation within the 2006 Program of Excellence and the kind hospitality of Uppsala University/Swedish Institute of Space Physics and ICFO during the writing of the manuscript. B.T. gratefully acknowledges financial support from the Swedish Research Council (VR) and the hospitality of the Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics (NORDITA), the University of Padova, and the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, where parts of this work were carried out.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Astronomy, University of Padova, vicolo dell’Osservatorio 3, IT-35122 Padova, Italy

    Fabrizio Tamburini

  2. Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Box 537, Ångström Laboratory, SE-75121 Uppsala, Sweden

    Bo Thidé

  3. QsciTech and Department of Physics and Astronomy, Macquarie University, 2109 New South Wales, Australia

    Gabriel Molina-Terriza

  4. ICFO, Parc Mediterrani de la Tecnologia, Av. del Canal Olı´mpic s/n, ES-08860 Castelldefels (Barcelona), Spain

    Gabriele Anzolin

Authors
  1. Fabrizio Tamburini
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  2. Bo Thidé
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  3. Gabriel Molina-Terriza
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  4. Gabriele Anzolin
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Contributions

F.T., B.T. and G.M-T. developed the model. F.T. carried out the numerical simulations. G.A. calculated and plotted the OAM spectra. F.T. and B.T. wrote the manuscript. All authors discussed and commented on the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Bo Thidé.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Tamburini, F., Thidé, B., Molina-Terriza, G. et al. Twisting of light around rotating black holes. Nature Phys 7, 195–197 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys1907

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