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

http://arxiv.org/abs/1901.03733


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.

Read this paper on arXiv…

T. Kimpson, K. Wu and S. Zane
Tue, 15 Jan 19
56/83

Comments: Accepted for publication in MNRAS