Related papers: Unit-lapse versions of the Kerr spacetime
Recently, the current authors have formulated and extensively explored a rather novel Painleve-Gullstrand variant of the slow-rotation Lense-Thirring spacetime, a variant which has particularly elegant features -- including unit lapse,…
The standard Lense-Thirring metric is a century-old slow-rotation large-distance approximation to the gravitational field outside a rotating massive body, depending only on the total mass and angular momentum of the source. Although it is…
We discuss the tension between the possible existence of Painleve-Gullstrand coordinate systems versus the explicit geometrical features of the Kerr spacetime; a subject of interest to Professor Thanu Padmanabhan in the weeks immediately…
Recently, the authors have formulated and explored a novel Painleve-Gullstrand variant of the Lense-Thirring spacetime, which has some particularly elegant features -- including unit-lapse, intrinsically flat spatial 3-slices, and some…
A simple observation about the action for geodesics in a stationary spacetime with separable geodesic equations leads to a natural class of slicings of that spacetime whose orthogonal geodesic trajectories represent freely falling…
Every spacetime is defined by its metric, the mathematical object which further defines the spacetime curvature. From the relativity principle, we have the freedom to choose which coordinate system to write our metric in. Some coordinate…
Herein we explore the non-equatorial constant-$r$ ("quasi-circular") geodesics (both timelike and null) in the Painleve-Gullstrand variant of the Lense-Thirring spacetime recently introduced by the current authors. Even though the spacetime…
The astrophysical importance of the Kerr spacetime cannot be overstated. Of the currently known exact solutions to the Einstein field equations, the Kerr spacetime stands out in terms of its direct applicability to describing astronomical…
The Lense--Thirring spacetime describes a 4-dimensional slowly rotating approximate solution of vacuum Einstein equations valid to a linear order in rotation parameter. It is fully characterized by a single metric function of the…
The Kerr spacetime is one of the most widely known solutions to Einstein's vacuum field equations and is commonly used to describe a black hole with mass $m$ and spin $a$. Astrophysical observations in the electromagnetic spectrum as well…
An exact solution of Einstein's field equations in empty space first found in 1985 by Quevedo and Mashhoon is analyzed in detail. This solution generalizes Kerr spacetime to include the case of matter with arbitrary mass quadrupole moment…
We construct a coordinate system for the Kerr solution, based on the zero angular momentum observers dropped from infinity, which generalizes the Painleve-Gullstrand coordinate system for the Schwarzschild solution. The Kerr metric can then…
The Painleve-Gullstrand coordinates provide a convenient framework for presenting the Schwarzschild geometry because of their flat constant-time hypersurfaces, and the fact that they are free of coordinate singularities outside r=0.…
Contents: 1) Introduction and a few excursions [A word on the role of explicit solutions in other parts of physics and astrophysics. Einstein's field equations. "Just so" notes on the simplest solutions: The Minkowski, de Sitter and anti-de…
A universal method to solve the differential equations of light-like geodesics is developed. The validity of this method depends on a new theorem, which is introduced for light-like geodesics in analogy to Beltrami's "geometrical" method…
We present a new description of discrete space-time in 1+1 dimensions in terms of a set of elementary geometrical units that represent its independent classical degrees of freedom. This is achieved by means of a binary encoding that is…
A special-relativistic scalar-vector theory of gravitation is presented which mimics an important class of solutions of Einstein's gravitational field equations. The theory includes solutions equivalent to Schwarzschild, Kerr,…
Gravity whose nature is fundamental to the understanding of solar system, galaxies and the structure and evolution of the Universe, is theorized by the assumption of curved spacetime, according to Einstein`s general theory of relativity…
We construct an exact solution for the spherical gravitational collapse in a single coordinate patch. To describe the dynamics of collapse, we use a generalized form of the Painlev\'e-Gullstrand coordinates in the Schwarzschild spacetime.…
Einstein's theory of General Relativity implies that energy, i.e. matter, curves space-time and thus deforms lightlike geodesics, giving rise to gravitational lensing. This phenomenon is well understood in the case of the Schwarzschild…