Quasi-Spherical Light Cones of the Kerr Geometry

Abstract

Quasi-spherical light cones are lightlike hypersurfaces of the Kerr geometry that are asymptotic to Minkowski light cones at infinity. We develop the equations of these surfaces and examine their properties. In particular, we show that they are free of caustics for all positive values of the Kerr radial coordinate r. Useful applications include the propagation of high-frequency waves, the definition of Kruskal-like coordinates for a spinning black hole and the characteristic initial-value problem.