Mimicking a rotating black hole with nonlinear electrodynamics

Abstract

We exhibit the first analogue model of a rotating black hole constructed in the framework of nonlinear electrodynamics. The background electromagnetic field is assumed to be algebraically special and adapted to a geodesic shear-free congruence of null rays in Minkowski spacetime, the Kerr congruence. The corresponding optical metric has a Kerr–Schild form and, it is shown to be characterized by three parameters, thus predicting the existence of an ergosurface, a horizon, and a slice identical to one also present in the Kerr metric.