The Igusa modular forms and ``the simplest'' Lorentzian Kac--Moody algebras

We find automorphic corrections for the Lorentzian Kac--Moody algebras with the simplest generalized Cartan matrices of rank 3: A_{1,0} = 2 0 -1 0 2 -2 -1 -2 2 and A_{1,I} = 2 -2 -1 -2 2 -1 -1 -1 2 For A_{1,0} this correction is given by the Igusa Sp_4(Z)-modular form \chi_{35} of weight 35, and for A_{1,I} by a Siege modular form of weight 30 with respect to a 2-congruence subgroup. We find infinite product or sum expansions for these forms. Our method of construction of \chi_{35} leads to the direct construction of Siegel modular forms by infinite product expansions, whose divisors are the Humbert surfaces with fixed discriminants. Existence of these forms was proved by van der Geer in 1982 using some geometrical consideration. We announce a list of all hyperbolic symmetric generalized Cartan matrices A of rank 3 such that A has elliptic or parabolic type, A has a lattice Weyl vector, and A contains the affine submatrix \tilde{A}_1.Comment: 40 pages, no figures. AMS-Te

Scattering of circularly polarized light by a rotating black hole

We study scattering of polarized light by a rotating (Kerr) black hole of the mass M and the angular momentum J. In order to keep trace of the polarization dependence of photon trajectories one can use the following dimensionless parameter: $\varepsilon=\pm (\omega M)^{-1}$, where $\omega$ is the photon frequency and the sign + (-) corresponds to the right (left) circular polarization. We assume that |\varepsilonl << 1 and use the modified geometric optics approximation developed in [1], that is we include the first order in $\varepsilon$ polarization dependent terms into the eikonal equation. These corrections modify late time behavior of photons. We demonstrate that the photon moves along a null curve, which in the limit $\varepsilon=0$ becomes a null geodesic. We focus on the scattering problem for polarized light. Namely, we consider the following problems: (i) How does the photon bending angle depend on its polarization; (ii) How does position of the image of a point-like source depend on its polarization; (iii) How does the arrival time of photons depend on their polarization. We perform the numerical calculations that illustrate these effects for an extremely rotating black hole and discuss their possible applications.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figure

A Toy Model for Topology Change Transitions: Role of Curvature Corrections

We consider properties of near-critical solutions describing a test static axisymmetric D-dimensional brane interacting with a bulk N-dimensional black hole (N>D). We focus our attention on the effects connected with curvature corrections to the brane action. Namely, we demonstrate that the second order phase transition in such a system is modified and becomes first order. We discuss possible consequences of these results for merger transitions between caged black holes and black strings.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures, v2: published versio