Kerr Black Hole Gravitational Lensing

network parallelization mpi Astrophysics

Black holes are one of the most interesting predictions of general relativity. One of their most interesting features is that they bend and distort any beams of light that pass them. The recent image of the black hole from April 2019 showed one feature of this distortion of light - the “shadow” of the black hole - which is really the distortion of light that was emitted from the accretion disk around the black hole. This project will further examine how light is distorted near black holes by tracing millions of light ray bundles in this region of highly distorted space-time.

Student Research Computing Facilitator Profile:

I am mostly in need of help with writing MPI and MP code. I have reasonable code-writing experience in C++ and codes that operate on single work-stations tracing light rays. An ideal facilitator will have solid mathematics skills (basic knowledge of differential equations, numerical techniques for ODEs and ray shooting), but ideally some experience or interest in learning how to write MPI and MP code.

Project Status In progress
Project Owner Thomas Kling
Project Mentor Shaohao Chen
Student Lia Troy

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