English

Counting Zeros of Harmonic Rational Functions and Its Application to Gravitational Lensing

Complex Variables 2012-12-18 v2 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology Mathematical Physics math.MP

Abstract

General Relativity gives that finitely many point masses between an observer and a light source create many images of the light source. Positions of these images are solutions of r(z)=zˉ,r(z)=\bar{z}, where r(z)r(z) is a rational function. We study the number of solutions to p(z)=zˉp(z) = \bar{z} and r(z)=zˉ,r(z) = \bar{z}, where p(z)p(z) and r(z)r(z) are polynomials and rational functions, respectively. Upper and lower bounds were previously obtained by Khavinson-\'{S}wi\c{a}tek, Khavinson-Neumann, and Petters. Between these bounds, we show that any number of simple zeros allowed by the Argument Principle occurs and nothing else occurs, off of a proper real algebraic set. If r(z)=zˉr(z) = \bar{z} describes an nn-point gravitational lens, we determine the possible numbers of generic images.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1206.2273,
  title  = {Counting Zeros of Harmonic Rational Functions and Its Application to Gravitational Lensing},
  author = {Pavel M. Bleher and Youkow Homma and Lyndon L. Ji and Roland K. W. Roeder},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1206.2273},
  year   = {2012}
}

Comments

15 pages, 2 figures. To appear in International Mathematics Research Notices (IMRN)