Hamburg 2009 – scientific programme

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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 57: Photonik I

Q 57.1: Talk

Friday, March 6, 2009, 10:30–10:45, Audi-A

Visualization of the Gödel Universe — •Michael Buser¹, Endre Kajari¹, Wolfgang P. Schleich¹, Frank Grave², Günter Wunner², and Hanns Ruder³ — ¹Universität Ulm — ²Universität Stuttgart — ³Universität Tübingen

The Gödel universe is an intriguing solution of the Einstein’s field equation and was found by Kurt Gödel in 1949. It is the first cosmological solution of a universe which includes closed time-like worldlines on which an observer can travel back in time. In our talk we address the issue how an observer located in such a universe would perceive his surrounding visually. This is particularly interesting since the Gödel universe provides a couple of compelling optical effects such as the existence of an optical horizon. Since the light propagation, which determines the visual appearance of objects to an observer, is intrinsically tied to the curvature of the underlying spacetime, the visualization we present in our talk also gives an deeper insight into the structure of the Gödel universe.