Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2026/iii/paper-311/4/b/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2026 iii Paper 311 4 b Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
The stationary Killing field becomes null whereSolving gives the stationary-limit surfacesThe exterior Kerr ergoregion isThe event horizon is the constant-radius surface , whereas the outer stationary limit lies outside it except at the poles, where the two meet.
Inside the ergoregion is spacelike, so future-directed particles can have negative conserved stationary Killing energy while still following causal trajectories. Sending such a particle through the horizon permits another particle to escape with increased positive energy. This is the Penrose process, which extracts the black hole's rotational energy.
New to topics? Read the docs here!