Using the Newman and Penrose spin coefficient (NP) formalism, we examine the full Bianchi identities of general relativity in the context of gravitational lensing, where the matter and space-time curvature are projected into a lens plane perpendicular to the line of sight. From one component of the Bianchi identity, we provide a rigorous, new derivation of a Poisson equation for the projected matter density where the source term involves second derivatives of the observed weak gravitational lensing shear. We also show that the other components of the Bianchi identity reveal no new results. Numerical integration of the Poisson equation in test cases shows an accurate mass map can be constructed from the combination of a ground-based, wide-field image and a Hubble Space Telescope image of the same system.
Gravitational lensing by gravitational wave is considered. We notice that although final and initial direction of photons coincide, displacement between final and initial trajectories occurs. This displacement is calculated analytically for the plane gravitational wave pulse. Estimations for observations are discussed.
Singularities of caustics appeared in gravitational lensing effect are discussed analytically. Multipole expansion model of lensing object is mainly studied since it is tractable and universal. Our analyses are confirmed by numerical calculations and applied to multiple quasar system of PG1115+080. Consistencies with elliptical lens models are also discussed.
We present a framework, based on the null-surface formulation of general relativity, for discussing the dynamics of Fermat potentials for gravitational lensing in a generic situation without approximations of any kind. Additionally, we derive two lens equations: one for the case of thick compact lenses and the other one for lensing by gravitational waves. These equations in principle generalize the astrophysical scheme for lensing by removing the thin-lens approximation while retaining the weak fields.
This thesis contributes to the field of gravitational lensing (GL) and observational cosmology. We discuss the use of gravitational lensing as a tool in search of exotic objects in the Universe. In the next chapter the concordance of an alternative cosmological model with the current gravitational lensing observations is explored and also a non-minimally coupled effective gravity theory that supports non-topological solitonic solutions is considered. In the last chapter we study propagation of light in strong gravitational field. Using geometrical optics approach we show that massless particle…
We revisit a weak gravitational lensing problem by constructing a setup which describes the actual system as accurately as possible and solving the null geodesic equations. Details are given for the case of a Universe driven only by a cosmological constant, Λ, which confirm the conventional results: The conventional lensing analysis is correct as it is, without any need for correction of O(Λ). We also treat the cases of the lensing in generic FRW backgrounds.
We consider the Bianchi identity as a field equation for the distortion of the shapes of images produced by weak gravitational lensing. Using the spin coefficient formalism of Newman and Penrose [1962], we show that certain complex components of the Weyl and Ricci curvature tensors are directly related to fundamental observables in weak gravitational lensing. In the case of weak gravitational fields, we then show that the Bianchi identity provides a field equation for the Ricci tensor assuming a known Weyl tensor. From the Bianchi identity, we derive the integral equation for weak lensing pres…
The amplification of a light beam due to intervening gravitational waves is studied. The previous Jordan frame result according to which the amplification is many orders of magnitude larger in scalar-tensor gravity than in general relativity does not hold in the Einstein conformal frame. Lensing by gravitational waves is discussed in relation to the ongoing and proposed VLBI observations aimed at detecting the scintillation effect.
The effect of gravitational lensing on cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies is investigated using the power spectrum approach. The lensing effect can be calculated in any cosmological model by specifying the evolution of gravitational potential. Previous work on this subject is generalized to a non-flat universe and to a nonlinear evolution regime. Gravitational lensing cannot change the gross distribution of CMB anisotropies, but it may redistribute the power and smooth the sharp features in the CMB power spectrum. The magnitude of this effect is estimated using observational constr…
We analyze the bending of light by galaxies or clusters of galaxies in the presence of the cosmological term. Going over to the Friedmann-Robertson-Walker coordinates, used in fact for the description of actual observations, we demonstrate that the cosmological constant does not influence practically the lensing effect.
We develop an iterative approach to gravitational lensing theory based on approximate solutions of the null geodesic equations. The approach can be employed in any space-time which is ``close'' to a space-time in which the null geodesic equations can be completely integrated, such as Minkowski space-time, Robertson-Walker cosmologies, or Schwarzschild-Kerr geometries. To illustrate the method, we construct the iterative gravitational lens equations and time of arrival equation for a single Schwarzschild lens. This example motivates a discussion of the relationship between the iterative approac…
We study how the angular resolution of LISA for merging massive black-hole binaries would be improved if we observe multiple gravitational wave ``images'' due to strong gravitational lensing. The correlation between fitting parameters is reduced by the additional information of the second image which significantly reduces the error box on the sky. This improvement would be very helpful for identifying the host galaxy of a binary. The angular resolution expected with multiple detectors is also discussed.
Extreme gravitational lensing refers to the bending of photon trajectories that pass very close to supermassive black holes and that cannot be described in the conventional weak deflection limit. A complete analytical description of the whole expected phenomenology has been achieved in the recent years using the strong deflection limit. These progresses and possible directions for new investigations are reviewed in this paper at a basic level. We also discuss the requirements for future facilities aimed at detecting higher order gravitational lensing images generated by the supermassive black …
We present a complete treatment in the strong field limit of gravitational retro-lensing by a static spherically symmetric compact object having a photon sphere. The results are compared with those corresponding to ordinary lensing in similar strong field situations. As examples of application of the formalism, a supermassive black hole at the galactic center and a stellar mass black hole in the galactic halo are studied as retro-lenses, in both cases using the Schwarzschild and Reissner-Nordstrom geometries.
We revisit the gravitational lensing phenomenon using a new visualization technique. It consists in projecting the observers sky into the source plane, what gives rise to a folded and stretched surface. This provides a clear graphical tool to visualize some interesting well-known effects, such as the development of multiple images of a source, the structure of the caustic curves, the parity of the images and their magnification as a function of the source position.
We investigate the effects of gravitational lensing in the binary pulsar system J0737-3039. Current measurement of the orbital inclination allows the millisecond pulsar (A) to pass very close (at R_{min}=4000 km) in projection to the companion pulsar (B), with R_{min} comparable to the Einstein radius (2600 km). For this separation at the conjunction, lensing causes small (about 10%) magnification of the pulsar A signal on a timescale of several seconds, and displaces the pulsar image on the sky plane by about 1200 km. More importantly, lensing introduces a correction (of several microsec) to …
Weak gravitational lensing has several important effects on the cosmic microwave background (CMB): it changes the CMB power spectra, induces non-Gaussianities, and generates a B-mode polarization signal that is an important source of confusion for the signal from primordial gravitational waves. The lensing signal can also be used to help constrain cosmological parameters and lensing mass distributions. We review the origin and calculation of these effects. Topics include: lensing in General Relativity, the lensing potential, lensed temperature and polarization power spectra, implications for c…
We discuss image formation in gravitational lensing systems using wave optics. Applying the Fresnel-Kirchhoff diffraction formula to waves scattered by a gravitational potential of a lens object, we demonstrate how images of source objects are obtained directly from wave functions without using a lens equation for gravitational lensing.
We study gravitational lensing by the Gibbons-Maeda-Garfinkle-Horowitz-Strominger (GMGHS) charged black hole of heterotic string theory and obtain the angular position and magnification of the relativistic images. Modeling the supermassive central object of the galaxy as a GMGHS black hole, we estimate the numerical values of different strong-lensing parameters. We find that there is no significant string effect present in the lensing observables in the strong-gravity scenario.
We show how our theory of large-scale gravitational quantization explains the large angle gravitational lensing by galaxies without requiring "dark matter". A galaxy is treated as a collective system of billions of stars in each quantization state with each star experiencing an average gravitational environment analogous to that for nucleons in the atomic nucleus. Consequently, each star is in an approximate finite depth square well type of gravitational potential. The "effective potential" is shown to be about ten times greater than the Newtonian gravitational potential, so the gravitational …
Schwarzschild black holes can produce strong gravitational lensing. The relativistic images are produced due to bending of light around the black hole. We propose a model equation to study the strong gravitational lensing. The model equation can well describe the bending angle from a range very close to the photon sphere to the first relativistic image.
In this paper, we use the strong field limit approach to investigate the gravitational lensing properties of braneworld black holes. Applying this method to the supermassive black hole at the centre of our galaxy, the lensing observables for some candidate braneworld black hole metrics are compared with those for the standard Schwarzschild case. It is found that braneworld black holes could have significantly different observational signatures to the Schwarzschild black hole.
In this article, we develop a formalism which is different from the standard lensing scenario and is necessary for understanding lensing by gravitational fields which arise as solutions of the effective Einstein equations on the brane. We obtain general expressions for measurable quantities such as time delay, deflection angle, Einstein ring and magnification. Subsequently, we estimate the deviations (relative to the standard lensing scenario) in the abovementioned quantities by considering the line elements for clusters and spiral galaxies obtained by solving the effective Einstein equations …
The unique, conical spacetime created by cosmic strings brings about distinctive gravitational lensing phenomena. The variety of these distinctive phenomena is increased when the strings have non-trivial mutual interactions. In particular, when strings bind and create junctions, rather than intercommute, the resulting configurations can lead to novel gravitational lensing patterns. In this brief note, we use exact solutions to characterize these phenomena, the detection of which would be strong evidence for the existence of complex cosmic string networks of the kind predicted by string theory-…
Gravitational lensing caused by the gravitational field of massive objects has been studied and acknowledged for a long period of time. In this paper, however, we propose a different mechanism where the bending of light stems from the non-linear interaction of gravitational, electromagnetic and axion waves that creates the high curvature zone in the space-time fabric. The striking distinction in the present study is that in contrast to the convex lensing in the gravitational field of a massive object, hyperbolic nature of the high curvature zone of the background space-time may give rise to co…
In this paper we investigate the strong gravitational lensing with Gauss-Bonnet gravity. By considering the logarithmic term for deflection angle, we obtain the deflection angle $\hatα$ and corresponding parameters $\bar{a}$ and $\bar{b}$. Finally, by using the relations between the observables and lensing parameters, we estimate the observables such as, $θ_{\infty}$, $s$ and $r_m$, for the relativistic images in the Gauss-Bonnet background.
We present three different theoretically foreseen, but unusual, astrophysical situations where the gravitational lens equation ends up being the same, thus producing a degeneracy problem. These situations are (a) the case of gravitational lensing by exotic stresses (matter violating the weak energy condition and thus having a negative mass, particular cases of wormholes solutions can be used as an example), (b) scalar field gravitational lensing (i.e. when considering the appearance of a scalar charge in the lensing scenario), and (c) gravitational lensing in closed universes (with antipodes).…
We found strong similarities between the gravitational lensing and the conventional optical lensing. The similarities imply a graded refractive index description of the light deflection in gravitational field. We got a general approach to this refractive index in a static spherically symmetric gravitational field and obtained its exterior and interior solutions exactly through the general relativity. In weak field case, the two solutions come to a simple unified exponential function of the gravitational potential. With these results, the gravitational lensing can be analyzed in a convenient op…
Gravitational lensing has developed into one of the most powerful tools for the analysis of the dark universe. This review summarises the theory of gravitational lensing, its main current applications and representative results achieved so far. It has two parts. In the first, starting from the equation of geodesic deviation, the equations of thin and extended gravitational lensing are derived. In the second, gravitational lensing by stars and planets, galaxies, galaxy clusters and large-scale structures is discussed and summarised.
We point out that the results by Brandenberger et al. in Phys.Rev.D77:083502(2008) that the geometry around the straight cosmic strings with stationary junctions is flat to linear order in the string tension can be immediately extended to any order.
In this paper we study gravitational lensing by STU black holes. We considered extremal limit of two special cases of zero-charged and one-charged black holes, and obtain the deflection angle. We find that the black hole charge increases the deflection angle.
We analyzed the influence of static gravitational field on the vacuum and proposed the concept of inhomogeneous vacuum. According to the corresponding Fermat's principle in the general relativity, we derived a graded refractive index of vacuum in a static gravitational field. We found that the light deflection in a gravitational field can be calculated correctly with the use of this refractive index and therefore the gravitational lensing can be treated conveniently with the optical method. For illustration, we simulated the imaging of gravitational lensing, figured out the time delay between …
Considering the spacetime around a rotating massif body it is seen that the time of flight of a light ray is different whether it travels on one side of the source or on the other. The difference is proportional to the angular momentum of the body. In the case that a compact rapidly rotating object is the source of a gravitational lensing effect, the contribution coming from the above mentioned gravitational Aharonov-Bohm effect should be added to the other causes of phase difference between light rays coming from different images of the same object.
Adopting the strong field limit approach, we investigated the strong gravitational lensing in a Brane-World black hole, which means that the strong field limit coefficients and the deflection angle in this gravitational field are obtained. With this result, it can be said with certainly that the strong gravitational lensing is related to the metric of gravitational fields closely, the cosmology parameter α and the dark matter parameter \b{eta} come from the Brane-World black hole exerts a great influence on it. Comparing with the Schwarzschild-AdS spacetime and the Schwarzschild-XCMD spacetime…
We study the gravitational lensing in the weak field approximation assuming the presence of a plasma and of a magnetic field around a compact gravitational source. The external magnetic field causes the split of the image, as the counterpart of the Zeeman effect. The magnetic field affects the magnification of images, creating additional components. We also study the time delay of an electromagnetic signal due to the geometry and the gravitational field around the source. We show that the time delay strongly depends on the plasma parameters. Lastly, we consider the effects of the presence of a…
Gravitational lensing by traversable Lorentzian wormholes is a ew possibility which is analyzed here in the strong field limit. Wormhole solutions are considered in the Einstein minimally coupled theory and in the brane world model. The observables in both the theories show significant differences from those arising in the Schwarzschild black hole lensing. As a corollary, it follows that wormholes with zero Keplerian mass exhibit lensing properties which are qualitatively (though not quantitatively) the same as those of a Schwarzschild black hole. Some special features of the considered soluti…
We present the first detailed computations of wave optics effects in the gravitational lensing of binary systems. The field is conceptually rich, combining the caustic singularities produced in classical gravitational lensing with quantum (wave) interference effects. New techniques have enabled us to overcome previous barriers to computation. Recent developments in radio astronomy present observational opportunities which, while still futuristic, appear promising.
Gravitational waves propagate along null geodesics like light rays in the geometrical optics approximation, and they may have a chance to suffer from gravitational lensing by intervening objects, as is the case for electromagnetic waves. Long wavelength of gravitational waves and compactness of possible sources may enable us to extract information in the interference among the lensed images. We point out that the interference term contains information of relative transverse velocity of the source-lens-observer system, which may be obtained by possible future space-borne gravitational wave dete…
We have investigated the gravitational lensing by two wormholes, viz., Janis-Newman-Winnicour (JNW) wormhole and Ellis wormhole. The deflection angle in the strong field limit is calculated and various lens parameters of two wormholes are compared. It is shown that the JNW wormhole exhibits the relativistic images, while the Ellis wormhole does not have any relativistic images due to the absence of its photon sphere.
In this work the space-time geometry of the halo region in spiral galaxies is obtained considering the observed flat galactic rotation curve feature, invoking the Tully-Fisher relation and assuming the presence of cold dark matter in the galaxy. The gravitational lensing analysis is performed treating the so obtained space-time as a gravitational lens. It is found that the aforementioned space-time as the gravitational lens can consistently explain the galaxy-galaxy weak gravitational lensing observations and the lensing observations of the well-known Abell 370 galaxy cluster.
We propose the use of modulated spectra of astronomical sources due to gravitational lensing to probe Ellis wormholes. The modulation factor due to gravitational lensing by the Ellis wormhole is calculated. Within the geometrical optics approximation, the normal point mass lens and the Ellis wormhole are indistinguishable unless we know the source's unlensed luminosity. This degeneracy is resolved with the significant wave effect in the low frequency domain if we take the deviation from the geometrical optics into account. We can roughly estimate the upper bound for the number density of Ellis…
It has been recently shown that Hoyle-Narlikar's C-field theory admits wormhole geometry. We derive the deflection angle of light rays caused by C-field wormhole in the strong field limit approach of gravitational lensing theory. The linearized stability of C-field wormhole under spherically symmetric perturbations about static equilibrium is also explored.
Black hole lensing and gravitational waves are, respectively, closely dependent of the property of the lens and radiation source. In this letter, a universal relation between them is established for a rotating black hole acting simultaneously as a lens and a gravitational wave source, in an asymptotically flat spacetime. The relation only relies on the lens geometry and observable, while is independent of the specific nature of the black hole. Therefore, the possible gravitational wave sources could be located with modern astronomical instrument from the side of the lensing without knowing the…
The theory of gravitational lensing is reviewed from a spacetime perspective, without quasi-Newtonian approximations. More precisely, the review covers all aspects of gravitational lensing where light propagation is described in terms of lightlike geodesics of a metric of Lorentzian signature. It includes the basic equations and the relevant techniques for calculating the position, the shape, and the brightness of images in an arbitrary general-relativistic spacetime. It also includes general theorems on the classification of caustics, on criteria for multiple imaging, and on the possible numb…
It has been shown that a noncommutative-geometry background may be able to support traversable wormholes. This paper discusses the possible detection of such wormholes in the outer regions of galactic halos by means of gravitational lensing. The procedure allows a comparison to other models such as the Navarro-Frenk-White model and f(R) modified gravity and is likely to favor a model based on noncommutative geometry.
The physics associated with spherically symmetric charged black holes is analyzed from the point of view of using weak gravitational lensing as a means for determining the dimensionality of spacetime. In particular, for exact solutions of electro-vac black holes in four and five spacetime dimensions the motion of photons is studied using the equations for the null geodesics and deriving the weak limit bending angles and delays in photon arrival times.
We consider light propagation as a probe of non-metricity in area metric spacetimes, and find a deviation from the standard Etherington relation for linearized area metric Schwarzschild. This is joint work with Frederic P. Schuller (Erlangen University).
Gravitation lensing calculations, which are generally done for light ray, are extended to that for a massive particle. Many interesting results were observed. We discuss the scattering cross section along-with many consequential quantities here. In particular, the case of Schrwarzschild metric was taken as illustration, though the analysis applies to a wide range of cases, such as extended black holes.
We present a framework for studying gravitational lensing in spherically symmetric spacetimes using 1+1+2 covariant methods. A general formula for the deflection angle is derived and we show how this can be used to recover the standard result for the Schwarzschild spacetime.
We study the optical properties of the Kehagias-Sfetsos (KS) compact objects, characterized by the "Hořava" parameter $ω_{_{KS}}$, in the presence of plasma, considering its homogeneous or power-law density distribution. The strong effects of both "Hořava" parameter $ω_{_{KS}}$ and plasma on the shadow cast by the KS compact objects are demonstrated. Using the weak field approximation, we investigate the gravitational lensing effect. Strong dependence of the deflection angle of the light on both the "Hořava" and plasma parameter is explicitly shown. The magnification of image source due to the…
We first define what we mean by gravitational lensing equations in a general space-time. A set of exact relations are then derived that can be used as the gravitational lens equations in all physical situations. The caveat is that into these equations there must be inserted a function, a two-parameter family of solutions to the eikonal equation, not easily obtained, that codes all the relevant (conformal) space-time information for this lens equation construction. Knowledge of this two-parameter family of solutions replaces knowledge of the solutions to the geodesic equations. The formalism is…
We consider the possible effects of gravitational lensing by globular clusters on gravitational waves from asymmetric neutron stars in our galaxy. In the lensing of gravitational waves, the long wavelength, compared with the usual case of optical lensing, can lead to the geometrical optics approximation being invalid, in which case a wave optical solution is necessary. In general, wave optical solutions can only be obtained numerically. We describe a computational method that is particularly well suited to numerical wave optics. This method enables us to compare the properties of several lens …
An overview is given on those theoretical gravitational lensing results that can be formulated in a spacetime setting, without assuming that the gravitational fields are weak and that the bending angles are small. The first part is devoted to analytical methods considering spacetimes in which the equations for light rays (lightlike geodesics) is completely integrable. This includes spherically symmetric static spacetimes, the Kerr spacetime and plane gravitational waves. The second part is devoted to qualitative methods which give some information on lensing properties without actually solving…
Observations of gravitational lenses in strong gravitational fields give us a clue to understanding dark compact objects. In this paper, we extend a method to obtain a deflection angle in a strong deflection limit provided by Bozza [Phys. Rev. D 66, 103001 (2002)] to apply to ultrastatic spacetimes. We also discuss on the order of an error term in the deflection angle. Using the improved method, we consider gravitational lensing by an Ellis wormhole, which is an ultrastatic wormhole of the Morris-Thorne class.
We have investigated the strong gravitational lensing for the photons coupled to Weyl tensor in a Schwarzschild black hole spacetime. We find that in the four-dimensional black hole spacetime the equation of motion of the photons depends not only on the coupling between photon and Weyl tensor, but also on the polarization direction of the photons. It is quite different from that in the case of the usual photon without coupling to Weyl tensor in which the equation of motion is independent of the polarization of the photon. Moreover, we find that the coupling and the polarization direction modif…
In this paper, we discuss the weak gravitational lensing in the context of stringy black holes. Initially, we examine the deflection angle of photon by charged stringy black hole. For this desire, we compute the Gaussian optical curvature and implement the Gauss-Bonnet theorem to investigate the deflection angle for spherically balanced spacetime of stringy black hole. We also analyze the influence of plasma medium in the weak gravitational lensing for stringy black hole. Moreover, the graphical impact of impact parameter $b$ , black hole charge $Q$ on deflection angle by charged stringy black…
We study weak gravitational lensing around a compact object with arbitrary quadrupole moment in the presence of plasma. The studied compact objects are considered to be spherically symmetric. The additional parameter $ε$ regulating the quadrupole moment in the metric alters the deflection angle of light rays along with the plasma parameters. In the vacuum, the number of images due to the presence of the parameter $ε$ increases and causes the increase of the magnification of the image source. The effects of uniform and nonuniform plasma on gravitational lensing around the compact object are als…
In this article we study gravitational lensing by non-rotating and asymptotically flat black holes in Horndeski theory. By adopting the strong deflection limit, we calculate the deflection angle, from which we obtain the positions and the magnifications of the relativistic images. We compare our results with those corresponding to black holes in General Relativity. We analyze the astrophysical consequences in the case of the nearest supermassive black holes.
