Photon Sphere - Spherical Photon Orbits Around A Kerr Black Hole

Spherical Photon Orbits Around A Kerr Black Hole

In contrast to a Schwarzschild black hole, a Kerr (spinning) black hole does not have spherical symmetry, but only an axis of symmetry, which has profound consequences for the photon orbits. A circular orbit can only exist in the equatorial plane, and there are two of them (prograde and retrograde), with different radii. All other constant-radius orbits have more complicated paths that oscillate in latitude about the equator.

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