Gravitational Shock Waves for Schwarzschild and Kerr Black Holes

We discuss a recently presented boosted Kerr black hole solution which had already been used by other authors. This boosted metric is based on wrong assumptions regarding asymptotic inertial observers and moreover the performed boost is not a proper Lorentz transformation. This note aims to clarify some of the issues when boosting black holes and the necessary care in order to interpret them. As it is wrongly claimed that the presented boosted Kerr metric is of Bondi-Sachs ty...

The exact metric of a moving Kerr black hole with an arbitrary constant velocity is derived in Kerr-Schild coordinates. We then calculate the null equatorial gravitational deflection caused by a radially moving Kerr source up to the second post-Minkowskian order, acting as an application of the weak field limit of the metric. The bending angle of light is found to be consistent with the result given in the previous works.

An historical account of the reasoning that led to the discovery of the Kerr and Kerr-Schild metrics in 1963-1964, and their physical interpretation as rotating black holes, is presented.

It is shown how the use of the Kerr-Schild coordinate system can greatly simplify the formulation of the geodesic equation of the Schwarzschild solution. An application of this formulation to the numerical computation of the aspect of a non-rotating black hole is presented. The generalization to the case of the Kerr solution is presented too.

This chapter provides a brief introduction to the Kerr spacetime and rotating black holes, touching on the most common coordinate representations of the spacetime metric and the key features of the geometry -- the presence of horizons and ergospheres. The coverage is by no means complete, and serves chiefly to orient oneself when reading subsequent chapters.

Starting from Newton's gravitational theory, we give a general introduction into the spherically symmetric solution of Einstein's vacuum field equation, the Schwarzschild(-Droste) solution, and into one specific stationary axially symmetric solution, the Kerr solution. The Schwarzschild solution is unique and its metric can be interpreted as the exterior gravitational field of a spherically symmetric mass. The Kerr solution is only unique if the multipole moments of its mass ...

A solution of Einstein's vacuum field equation is derived that describes a general boosted Kerr black hole relative to a Lorentz frame at future null infinity. The metric contains five independent parameters -- mass $m$, rotation $\omega$, boost parameter $v/c$ and the boost direction defined by $(n_1,n_2,n_3)$ satisfying $(n_1)^2+(n_2)^2+(n_3)^2=1$ -- and reduces to the Kerr black hole when the boost parameter is zero and $n_1=1$. The solution describes the most general conf...

The Kerr-Schild version of the Schwarzschild metric contains a Minkowski background which provides a definition of a boosted black hole. There are two Kerr-Schild versions corresponding to ingoing or outgoing principle null directions. We show that the two corresponding Minkowski backgrounds and their associated boosts have an unexpected difference. We analyze this difference and discuss the implications in the nonlinear regime for the gravitational memory effect resulting fr...

In this work, the field of a gravitational shockwave generated by a massless point-like particle is calculated at the event horizon of a stationary Kerr-Newman black hole. Using the geometric framework of generalized Kerr-Schild deformations in combination with the spin-coefficient formalism of Newman and Penrose, it is shown that the field equations of the theory, at the event horizon of the black hole, can be reduced to a single linear ordinary differential equation for the...

As a consequence of Birkhoff's theorem, the exterior gravitational field of a spherically symmetric star or black hole is always given by the Schwarzschild metric. In contrast, the exterior gravitational field of a rotating (axisymmetric) star differs, in general, from the Kerr metric, which describes a stationary, rotating black hole. In this paper, I discuss the possibility of a quasi-stationary transition from rotating equilibrium configurations of normal matter to rotat...