The weak gravitational lensing formalism can be extended to the strong lensing regime by integrating a nonlinear version of the geodesic deviation equation. The resulting "roulette" expansion generalises the notion of convergence, shear and flexion to arbitrary order. The independent coefficients of this expansion are screen space gradients of the optical tidal tensor which approximates to the usual lensing potential in the weak field limit. From lensed images, knowledge of the roulette coefficients can in principle be inverted to reconstruct the mass distribution of a lens. In this paper, we simplify the roulette expansion and derive a family of recursion relations between the various coefficients, generalising the Kaiser-Squires relations beyond the weak-lensing regime.
The cross-correlation of gravitational wave strain with upcoming galaxy surveys probe theories of gravity in a new way. This method enables testing the theory of gravity by combining the effects from both gravitational lensing of gravitational waves and the propagation of gravitational waves in spacetime. We find that within 10 years, the combination of the Advanced-LIGO and VIRGO detector networks with planned galaxy surveys should detect weak gravitational lensing of gravitational waves in the low redshift Universe ($z<0.5$). With the next generation gravitational wave experiments such as Vo…
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.
Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo could observe the first lensed gravitational waves in the coming years, while the future Einstein Telescope could observe hundreds of lensed events. Ground-based gravitational-wave detectors can resolve arrival time differences of the order of the inverse of the observed frequencies. As LIGO/Virgo frequency band spans from a few $\rm Hz$ to a few $ \rm kHz$, the typical time resolution of current interferometers is of the order of milliseconds. When microlenses are embedded in galaxies or galaxy clusters, lensing can become more prominent and result in observab…
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.
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 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 investigate the strong gravitational lensing in a Kaluza-Klein black hole with squashed horizons. We find the size of the extra dimension imprints in the radius of the photon sphere, the deflection angle, the angular position and magnification of the relativistic images. Supposing that the gravitational field of the supermassive central object of the Galaxy can be described by this metric, we estimated the numerical values of the coefficients and observables for gravitational lensing in the strong field limit.
Niels Bohr International Academy, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen（哥本哈根大学尼尔斯·玻尔研究所）；Theoretical Physics Department, CERN（欧洲核子研究中心理论物理部）；Department of Physics, Yonsei University（延世大学物理系）；Quantum Universe Center, Korea Institute for Advanced Study（韩国高等研究院量子宇宙中心）
We investigate the strong gravitational lensing for black hole with scalar charge in massive gravity. We find that the scalar charge and the type of the black hole significantly affect the radius of the photon sphere, deflection angle, angular image position, angular image separation, relative magnifications and time delay in strong gravitational lensing. Our results can be reduced to that of the Schwarzschild and Reissner-Nordstr$\ddot{o}$m black holes in some special cases.
In this paper we investigate the strong gravitational lensing in a charged squashed Kaluza-Klein black hole. We suppose that the supermassive black hole in the galaxy center can be considered by a charged squashed Kaluza-Klein black hole and then we study the strong gravitational lensing theory and estimate the numerical values for parameters and observables of it. We explore the effects of the scale of extra dimension $ρ_0$ and the charge of black hole $ρ_q$ on these parameters and observables.
We investigate the effect of the redshift drift in strong gravitational lensing. The redshift drift produces a time variation of $i)$ the apparent position of a lensed source and $ii)$ the time delay among incoming signals from different images. We dub these effects as angular drift and time delay drift, respectively, and analyze their relevance in cosmology.
Current sky surveys have been conducted very accurately in order to understand our universe. One of the phenomena survey maps provide is gravitational effect. Albert Einstein (1936) first discussed the possibilities of gravitational lensing effects based on his theory of general relativity, which might give us some information about cosmology. We often categorize the effects by micro, weak, and strong lensing types. This paper focuses on the strong gravitational lensing, especially the double-source plane lens systems. It was recently recognized that the double lensing events can provide us wi…
We discuss how small-scale density perturbations on the Fresnel scale affect amplitudes and phases of gravitational waves that are magnified by gravitational lensing in geometric optics. We derive equations that connect the small-scale density perturbations with the amplitude and phase fluctuations to show that such perturbative wave optics effects are significantly boosted in the presence of macro model magnifications such that amplitude and phase fluctuations can easily be observed for highly magnified gravitational waves. We discuss expected signals due to microlensing by stars, dark matter…
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.
For a general class of analytic f(R)-gravity theories, we discuss the weak field limit in view of gravitational lensing. Though an additional Yukawa term in the gravitational potential modifies dynamics with respect to the standard Newtonian limit of General Relativity, the motion of massless particles results unaffected thanks to suitable cancellations in the post-Newtonian limit. Thus, all the lensing observables are equal to the ones known from General Relativity. Since f(R)-gravity is claimed, among other things, to be a possible solution to overcome for the need of dark matter in virializ…
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.
We search for signatures of gravitational lensing in the binary black hole events detected by Advanced LIGO and Virgo during their first two observational runs. In particular, we look for three effects: 1) evidence of lensing magnification in the individual signals due to galaxy lenses, 2) evidence of multiple images due to strong lensing by galaxies, 3) evidence of wave optics effects due to point-mass lenses. We find no compelling evidence of any of these signatures in the observed gravitational wave signals. However, as the sensitivities of gravitational wave detectors improve in the future…
Weak-gravitational-lensing distortions to the intensity pattern of 21-cm radiation from the dark ages can be decomposed geometrically into curl and curl-free components. Lensing by primordial gravitational waves induces a curl component, while the contribution from lensing by density fluctuations is strongly suppressed. Angular fluctuations in the 21-cm background extend to very small angular scales, and measurements at different frequencies probe different shells in redshift space. There is thus a huge trove of information with which to reconstruct the curl component of the lensing field, all…
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 …
In this paper, we obtain a relation between the high-energy absorption cross section and the strong gravitational lensing for a static and spherically symmetric black hole. It provides us a possible way to measure the high-energy absorption cross section for a black hole from strong gravitational lensing through astronomical observation. More importantly, it allows us to compute the total energy emission rate for high-energy particles emitted from the black hole acting as a gravitational lens. It could tell us the range of the frequency, among which the black hole emits the most of its energy …
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.
We develop a model of gravitational lensing in a non-uniform plasma. When a gravitating body is surrounded by a plasma, the lensing angle depends on the frequency of the electromagnetic wave, due to dispersion properties of plasma, in presence of a plasma inhomogeneity, and of a gravity. The second effect leads, even in a uniform plasma, to a difference of the gravitational photon deflection angle from the vacuum case, and to its dependence on the photon frequency. We take into account both effects, and derive the expression for the lensing angle in the case of a strongly nonuniform plasma in …
We compute time delays for gravitational lensing in a flat LambdaCDM Swiss cheese universe. We assume a primary and secondary pair of light rays are deflected by a single point mass condensation described by a Kottler metric (Schwarzschild with Lambda) embedded in an otherwise homogeneous cosmology. We find that the cosmological constant's effect on the difference in arrival times is non-linear and at most around 0.002% for a large cluster lens; however, we find differences from time delays predicted by conventional linear lensing theory that can reach ~4% for these large lenses. The differenc…
Continuous gravitational waves are analogous to monochromatic light and therefore could be used to detect wave effects like interference or diffraction. This would be possible with strongly lensed gravitational waves. This article reviews and summaries the theory of gravitational lensing in the context of gravitational waves in two different regimes: geometric optics and wave optics, for two widely used lens models such as point mass lens and Singular Isothermal Sphere (SIS). Observable effects due to wave nature of gravitational waves are discussed. As a consequence of interference GWs produc…
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 …
Utilizing gravitational-wave (GW) lensing opens a new way to understand the small-scale structure of the universe. We show that, in spite of its coarse angular resolution and short duration of observation, LIGO can detect the GW lensing induced by compact structures, in particular by compact dark matter (DM) or primordial black holes of $10 - 10^5 \, M_\odot$, which remain interesting DM candidates. The lensing is detected through GW frequency chirping, creating the natural and rapid change of lensing patterns: \emph{frequency-dependent amplification and modulation} of GW waveforms. As a highe…
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…
The standard definition of gravitational lensing magnification is generalized to Lorentzian spacetimes, and it is shown how it can be interpreted geometrically in terms of the van Vleck determinant and the exponential map. This is joint work with Amir B. Aazami (Kavli IPMU, University of Tokyo).
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…
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 …
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 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.
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…
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.
The Chinese University of Hong Kong（香港中文大学）；National Institute of Technology, Kozhikode（科利科德国家理工学院）；Universite Catholique de Louvain（天主教鲁汶大学）；Royal Observatory of Belgium（比利时皇家天文台）；Nikhef – National Institute for Subatomic Physics（尼赫夫–荷兰亚原子物理国家研究所）；Utrecht University（乌得勒支大学）；University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee（威斯康星大学密尔沃基分校）
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…
In light of the surge in popularity of electromagnetic cloaking devices, we consider whether it is possible to use gravitational lensing to cloak a volume of spacetime. A metric for such a spacetime geometry is presented, and its geometric and physical implications are explained.
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.
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…
We investigate the ability of ground based gravitational wave observatories to detect gravitational wave lensing events caused by stellar mass lenses. We show that LIGO and Virgo possess the sensitivities required to detect lenses with masses as small as $\sim 30 M_\odot$ provided that the gravitational wave is observed with a signal-to-noise ratio of $\sim30$. Third generation observatories will allow detection of gravitational wave lenses with masses of $\sim 1 M_\odot$. Finally, we discuss the possibility of lensing by multiple stars, as is the case if the gravitational radiation is passing…
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…
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 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…
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.
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.
