No Arabic abstract
We investigate the behavior of null geodesics near future null infinity in asymptotically flat spacetimes. In particular, we focus on the asymptotic behavior of null geodesics that correspond to worldlines of photons initially emitted in the directions tangential to the constant radial surfaces in the Bondi coordinates. The analysis is performed for general dimensions, and the difference between the four-dimensional cases and the higher-dimensional cases is stressed. In four dimensions, some assumptions are required to guarantee the null geodesics to reach future null infinity, in addition to the conditions of asymptotic flatness. Without these assumptions, gravitational waves may prevent photons from reaching null infinity. In higher dimensions, by contrast, such assumptions are not necessary, and gravitational waves do not affect the asymptotic behavior of null geodesics.
We consider a characteristic problem of the vacuum Einstein equations with part of the initial data given on a future complete null cone with suitable decay, and show that the solution exists uniformly around the null cone for general such initial data. We can then define a segment of the future null infinity. The initial data are not required to be small and the decaying condition inherits from the works of cite{Ch-K} and cite{K-N}.
We present two methods to include the asymptotic domain of a background spacetime in null directions for numerical solutions of evolution equations so that both the radiation extraction problem and the outer boundary problem are solved. The first method is based on the geometric conformal approach, the second is a coordinate based approach. We apply these methods to the case of a massless scalar wave equation on a Kerr spacetime. Our methods are designed to allow existing codes to reach the radiative zone by including future null infinity in the computational domain with minor modifications. We demonstrate the flexibility of the methods by considering both Boyer-Lindquist and ingoing Kerr coordinates near the black hole. We also confirm numerically predictions concerning tail decay rates for scalar fields at null infinity in Kerr spacetime due to Hod for the first time.
Extremely compact objects containing a region of trapped null geodesics could be of astrophysical relevance due to trapping of neutrinos with consequent impact on cooling processes or trapping of gravitational waves. These objects have previously been studied under the assumption of spherical symmetry. In the present paper, we consider a simple generalization by studying trapping of null geodesics in the framework of the Hartle-Thorne slow-rotation approximation taken to first order in the angular velocity, and considering a uniform-density object with uniform emissivity for the null geodesics. We calculate effective potentials and escape cones for the null geodesics and how they depend on the parameters of the spacetimes, and also calculate the local and global coefficients of efficiency for the trapping. We demonstrate that due to the rotation the trapping efficiency is different for co-rotating and retrograde null geodesics, and that trapping can occur even for $R>3GM/c^2$, contrary to what happens in the absence of rotation.
The role of the wandering null geodesic is studied in a black hole spacetime. Based on the continuity of the solution of the geodesic equation, the wandering null geodesics commonly exist and explain the typical phenomena of the optical observation of event horizons. Moreover, a new concept of `black room is investigated to relate the wandering null geodesic to the black hole shadow more closely.
We prove an inequality relating the trace of the extrinsic curvature, the total angular momentum, the centre of mass, and the Trautman-Bondi mass for a class of gravitational initial data sets with constant mean curvature extending to null infinity. As an application we obtain non-existence results for the asymptotic Dirichlet problem for CMC hypersurfaces in stationary space-times.