English

Kerr principal null directions from Bel--Robinson and Kummer surfaces

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 2017-04-03 v1

Abstract

In the Kerr geometry, we calculate various surfaces of constant curvature invariants. These extend well beyond the Kerr horizon, and we argue that they might be of observational significance in connection with non-minimally coupled matter fields. Moreover, we demonstrate that the principal null directions of the Kerr geometry can be obtained by projections involving either the Bel--Robinson or the Kummer tensor. We conjecture that this is also possible in more general settings.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1703.10791,
  title  = {Kerr principal null directions from Bel--Robinson and Kummer surfaces},
  author = {Jens Boos and Alberto Favaro},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1703.10791},
  year   = {2017}
}

Comments

4 pages, 10 figures. Essay written for the Gravity Research Foundation 2017 Awards for Essays on Gravitation