Photon traps in nonlinear electrodynamics

Abstract We demonstrate the existence of photon traps within the framework of nonlinear electrodynamics. The trapping mechanism is based on the fact that, for null background fields, the optical metric reduces to the Kerr–Schild form, which plays a prominent role in the context of black hole physics. We then construct explicit examples where photons are confined in a region of spacetime, such that a distant observer cannot interact with them. Finally, we argue that the trapping scheme is quite universal, being entirely compatible with causality, energy conditions, and hyperbolicity.