Search arXiv⌕ Search
Home/Archive/arXiv

arXiv · 2609.26963

Raytracing Black Holes with AI Accelerators

Thomas Fischbacher·Nicholas Kessler
View original source ↗Read source document ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

We show how software infrastructure that was mainly built to power AI applications also can be used to great benefit for other purposes -- by demonstrating a fully self-contained JAX-based black hole raytracer in under 180+200 lines of Python code plus documentation. Major motivations for showcasing such a construction are (a) to show to professional physicists how Machine Learning (ML) accelerators can greatly simplify building numerical applications for GPU accelerator hardware with very modest coding effort and programming expertise -- even if the problems at hand do not involve ML per se, (b) to make a meaningful part of General Relativity (GR) accessible to computer science professionals who might not have realized that mathematical background they developed on Deep Learning problems may have brought this theory within easy reach for them, and (c) to inspire students and educators to explore the potential of an approach that represents physical law, i.e. relations between local differential quantities, not in terms of differentiable symbolic expressions, but in terms of differentiable algorithms.

Explore related subjects

physics.ed-ph

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

Thomas Fischbacher, Nicholas Kessler. 2026-09-22. Raytracing Black Holes with AI Accelerators. https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.26963

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

arXiv2026

Network lexical analysis of student integration of music and physics knowledge

Introductory physics students benefit from learning to integrate new physics knowledge with prior knowledge related to their interests. Writing assignments that offer high epistemic agency can foster this integration, and provide rich artifacts for qualitative analysis. Physics education researchers are increasingly interested in studying such artifacts using computer-based textual analysis. In this paper, we use lexical methods to look for evidence of knowledge integration in written assignments from a Physics of Music course. These assignments require students to communicate to an external audience a clear and cohesive narrative that synthesizes concepts from music and physics. To apply this methodology, we first establish a lexicon of music, physics, and integrated keywords that 10 students used across 6 writing assignments. Then, we visualize this word usage in a series of network diagrams based on which keywords were used in proximity to each other in each assignment. We find that students most strongly connected ideas from music and physics using keywords related to the physical structure of sound (sound, frequency, and wave). Applying these methods to each assignment prompt and its resulting student submissions, we find that, in assignments with a lower degree of epistemic agency (assessed qualitatively by our experience teaching the course), students primarily followed the example of integration modeled by the assignment prompt, but in assignments with a higher degree of epistemic agency, they explored music-physics integration to a greater degree. We use this analysis to offer a pedagogical contribution to introductory physics courses centered around students' interests, a theoretical contribution by illustrating a means of quantifying epistemic agency, and a methodological contribution that complements textual analysis and offers the scalability sought in such approaches.

physics.ed-ph↗
arXiv2026

Determination of the Charge of Electron Using Faraday's Law of Electrolysis

We propose a simple experiment for measuring the charge of the electron based on Faraday's law of electrolysis, assuming the known value of Avogadro's number. The experimental setup consists of electrolytic cells connected in series, so that the same electric current passes through each electrolyte. By measuring the mass deposited at the electrodes and relating it to the total electric charge transferred through the electrolyte using Faraday's law, the charge of the electron can be determined. The experiment requires only standard laboratory equipment, and its performance and analysis are within the skills and knowledge of most students taking algebra-based general physics courses. It is therefore particularly suitable for instructional laboratories in high schools and two- and four-year colleges. We demonstrate that students can obtain a reasonable value for the charge of the electron from simple measurements, providing a direct experimental connection between Faraday's law, Avogadro's number, and the electron charge.

physics.ed-ph↗
arXiv2026

Exploring pedagogical content knowledge of physics teaching assistants using the Energy and Momentum Conceptual Survey

This study examines the extent to which physics graduate teaching assistants (TAs) are aware of introductory physics student thinking and the types of challenges introductory students commonly have with energy and momentum concepts, which is important for implementing active learning methodologies and supporting diverse learners in physics courses. We present findings from a TA professional development course and discuss an approach to investigate TAs' pedagogical content knowledge, specifically their ability to recognize introductory student conceptual difficulties. We investigated 70 first-year graduate TAs' ability to identify common introductory physics student difficulties on the Energy and Momentum Conceptual Survey (EMCS). The TAs participated in a professional development course that emphasized reflection on introductory student thinking patterns to promote evidence-based pedagogical practices. TAs predicted the most common incorrect answers introductory students would select after lecture-based instruction, then compared their predictions with actual data from introductory students followed by a class discussion. Results reveal gaps between TAs' perceptions and introductory student thinking, with TAs performing poorly on many of the analyzed questions. For example, TAs consistently overestimated that introductory physics students would use novice-like thinking in many situations posed in EMCS problems, i.e., they expected introductory physics students to make more novice-like errors than they did. These findings have important implications for effective instructional design, e.g., physics TAs who misunderstand introductory physics student capabilities may inadvertently create barriers to learning by spending valuable class time on either over-scaffolding or under-challenging introductory physics learners and not spending time on pedagogical issues that are important to address.

physics.ed-ph↗