Blueshift and spectral features of the gravitational searchlight

Abstract

It is shown that a photon emitted in the forward direc- tion by a charged particle moving in an equatorial cir- cular orbit centred on a highly collapsed mass M, the radius being slightly in excess of one and a half times the Schwarzschild radius, is strongly blueshifted when it arrives at a distant receiver. A ring shaped emit- ting region composed of such orbiting particles has a power law spectrum of the form d~/~ as seen by a distant stationary observer.