Non-linear Monte Carlo Ray Tracing for Visualizing Warped Spacetime

Avirup Mandal, Kumar Ayush, Parag Chaudhuri

2021

Abstract

General relativity describes the curvature of spacetime. Rays of light follow geodesic paths in curved space-time. Visualizing scenes containing spacetime regions with pronounced curvature requires tracing of these light ray paths. We present a Monte Carlo approach for non-linear raytracing to render scenes in curved space-time. In contrast to earlier work, we can accurately resolve ray-object interactions. This allows us to create plausible visualizations of what happens when a black hole appears in a more known environment, like a room with regular specular and diffuse surfaces. We demonstrate that our solution is correct at cosmological scales by showing how spacetime warps around a stationary Schwarzschild black hole and a non-stationary Kerr black hole. We verify that the solution is consistent with the predictions of general relativity. In the absence of any curvature in spacetime, our renderer behaves like a normal linear ray tracer. Our method has the potential to create rich, physically plausible visualizations of complex phenomena that can be used for a range of purposes, from creating visual effects to making pedagogical aids to understand the behaviour of spacetime as predicted by general relativity.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Mandal A., Ayush K. and Chaudhuri P. (2021). Non-linear Monte Carlo Ray Tracing for Visualizing Warped Spacetime. In Proceedings of the 16th International Joint Conference on Computer Vision, Imaging and Computer Graphics Theory and Applications (VISIGRAPP 2021) - Volume 3: IVAPP; ISBN 978-989-758-488-6, SciTePress, pages 76-87. DOI: 10.5220/0010217600760087

in Bibtex Style

@conference{ivapp21,
author={Avirup Mandal and Kumar Ayush and Parag Chaudhuri},
title={Non-linear Monte Carlo Ray Tracing for Visualizing Warped Spacetime},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 16th International Joint Conference on Computer Vision, Imaging and Computer Graphics Theory and Applications (VISIGRAPP 2021) - Volume 3: IVAPP},
year={2021},
pages={76-87},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0010217600760087},
isbn={978-989-758-488-6},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 16th International Joint Conference on Computer Vision, Imaging and Computer Graphics Theory and Applications (VISIGRAPP 2021) - Volume 3: IVAPP
TI - Non-linear Monte Carlo Ray Tracing for Visualizing Warped Spacetime
SN - 978-989-758-488-6
AU - Mandal A.
AU - Ayush K.
AU - Chaudhuri P.
PY - 2021
SP - 76
EP - 87
DO - 10.5220/0010217600760087
PB - SciTePress