Simulation of Light Emitted from a Test Mass Orbiting an Extreme Black Hole

One of the most famous results from Einstein’s theory of general relativity is the bending of light by massive objects. In this undergraduate thesis, we seek to simulate what a distant observer would see from a luminous object orbiting a black hole. To do this, we have developed a general program which calculates null geodesics emitted from a test mass orbiting a central mass, taking relativistic beaming into account. We will show results for the cases of Schwarzschild, Reissner-Nordstrom, and Kerr black holes with an emphasis on black holes that have extreme charge-mass and angular momentum-mass ratios.