Stationary Black Holes and Light Rings

The ringdown and shadow of the astrophysically significant Kerr black hole (BH) are both intimately connected to a special set of bound null orbits known as light rings (LRs). Does it hold that a generic equilibrium BH must possess such orbits? In this Letter we prove the following theorem. A stationary, axisymmetric, asymptotically flat black hole spacetime in 1 + 3 dimensions, with a nonextremal, topologically spherical, Killing horizon admits, at least, one standard LR outside the horizon for each rotation sense. The proof relies on a topological argument and assumes C-2 smoothness and circularity, but makes no use of the field equations. The argument is also adapted to recover a previous theorem establishing that a horizonless ultracompact object must admit an even number of nondegenerate LRs, one of which is stable.