Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2009/iii/paper-56/2/c/i/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 iii Paper 56 2 c i Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
The conserved Killing energy of a geodesic tangent is , where . Conservation follows from and the Killing equation. For the Kerr metric, . Outside the outer Kerr ergoregion, is timelike. Its orthogonal complement is positive definite, so a nonzero causal vector cannot have . Equivalently, if both are future-directed, . HenceThis excludes the open exterior of the stationary-limit surface; on the surface itself a zero-energy null tangent can be proportional to the null stationary vector.
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