Black Hole Raytracing

Black hole raytracing is a software package that simulates light in the gravitational field around a black hole. It has a graphical user interface and can simulate black holes with both spin and charge. The properties of the accretion disk, as well as the camera position and properties, can be adjusted in the user interface. It is also to specify key frames, between which the software can then interpolate in order to make a movie. I have used this software in teaching General Relativity, as it can visually show the effects of gravitational light bending, frame dragging and Doppler shift.

Code download

You can download the source code here. For Ubuntu versions 22.04 or newer, there is also the option of installing a precompiled package with the following command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:g-h-nijs/blackholeraytracing && sudo apt update && sudo apt install blackholeraytracing

The program can then be launched by searching for "black hole raytracing" in the launcher.