2011/09/22 by Frederic H. Vincent, F H Vincent, T Paumard +5 · 183 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Computation #Formalism (music) #Geodesic #Kerr metric #Metric (unit) #Modular design #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Relativistic beaming #Solving the geodesic equations #Toroid #astro-ph.HE #gr-qc
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/0264-9381/28/22/225011
published in Classical and Quantum Gravity 28(22), 225011 (IOP Publishing) · 20 pages, 11 figures
arxiv created 2011/09/22 · openalex publication_date 2011/10/18 · arxiv updated 2012/03/15 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
GYOTO, a general relativistic ray-tracing code, is presented. It aims at computing images of astronomical bodies in the vicinity of compact objects, as well as trajectories of massive bodies in relativistic environments. This code is capable of integrating the null and timelike geodesic equations not only in the Kerr metric, but also in any metric computed numerically within the 3+1 formalism of general relativity. Simulated images and spectra have been computed for a variety of astronomical targets, such as a moving star or a toroidal accretion structure. The underlying code is an open source and freely available. It is user-friendly, quickly handled and very modular so that extensions are easy to integrate. Custom analytical or numerical metrics and astronomical targets can be implemented in C++ plug-in extensions independent from the main code.