We consider scattering of gravitational radiation incident axially on Kerr black holes. A Jeffreys-Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin formulation applied to a combination of the Teukolsky-Press and Chandrasekhar-Detweiler formalisms allows the integration for relatively large frequencies $\left|M\omega \right|$. Many interesting structures arise in the resultant cross sections. These include glories, dips in the cross section "due to" geometrical-optics orbits near the capture orbits, preferential polarization of the scattered wave, and very strong backward scattering when the conditions for superradiance hold.

• Received 2 May 1980

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.22.2331