A Gravitational Photograph
Presenter
August 12, 2025
Abstract
Massive bodies focus light by curving spacetime so that initially parallel null geodesics converge, producing the well‑known phenomenon of gravitational lensing. In this talk we explore the extent to which this name can be taken literally, imagining a camera where the optical lenses system has been replaced by a black hole. Using some tricks from Lorentzian geometry, path tracing, and gpu computing, we simulate such a camera, and the images it produces.