Related papers: Imaging with a gravitational lens: the geometric v…
We study analytically a gravitational lens due to a deformed star, which is modeled by using a monopole and a quadrupole moment. Positions of the images are discussed for a source on the principal axis. We present explicit expressions for…
The basic equations and geometry of gravitational lensing are described, as well as the most important contexts in which it is observed in astronomy: strong lensing, weak lensing and microlensing.
Gravitational lensing is now widely and successfully used to study a range of astronomical phenomena, from individual objects, like galaxies and clusters, to the mass distribution on various scales, to the overall geometry of the Universe.…
The density of stars and MACHOs in the universe could theoretically be determined or limited by simultaneous measurements of compact sources by well separated observers. A gravitational lens effect would be expected to create a slight…
We discuss the propagation of electromagnetic (EM) waves in the post-Newtonian approximation of the general theory of relativity. We consider diffraction of EM waves in the static gravitational field of a massive monopole. We develop a…
We present a framework that reformulates gravitational lensing as an optical phenomenon governed by an effective refractive index, enabling exploration of modified gravity theories using undergraduate-level mathematics and optics. After…
The existence of a massive black hole in the center of the Milky Way, coinciding with the radio source Sgr A*, is being established on more and more solid ground. In principle, this black hole, acting as a gravitational lens, is able to…
After exactly a century since the formulation of the general theory of relativity, the phenomenon of gravitational lensing is still an extremely powerful method for investigating in astrophysics and cosmology. Indeed, it is adopted to study…
One of the main problems in the study of system of equations of the gravitational lens, is the computation of coordinates from the known position of the source. In the process of computing finds the solution of equations with two unknowns.…
Strong gravitational lensing at the galaxy scale is a valuable tool for various applications in astrophysics and cosmology. The primary uses of galaxy-scale lensing are to study elliptical galaxies' mass structure and evolution, constrain…
The fraction of high-redshift sources which are multiply-imaged by intervening galaxies is strongly dependent on the cosmological constant, and so can be a useful probe of the cosmological model. However its power is limited by various…
It is shown that gravitational lensing by point masses arranged in an infinitely extended regular lattice can be studied analytically using the Weierstrass functions. In particular, we draw the critical curves and the caustic networks for…
We propose that some of the high-latitude unidentified EGRET gamma-ray sources could be the result of gravitational lensing amplification of the innermost regions of distant, faint, active galactic nuclei. These objects have gamma-ray…
According to the theory of general relativity, masses deflect light in a way similar to convex glass lenses. This gravitational lensing effect is astigmatic, giving rise to image distortions. These distortions allow to quantify cosmic…
Gravitational lensing deals with general-relativistic effects in the propagation of electromagnetic radiation. We consider wavelength-dependent contributions in case of a (micro)lensing of an extended Gaussian source by a point mass under…
We study the continuous limit of the multiple gravitational lensing theory based on the thin lens approximation. Under the approximation, we define a new, light-path dependent angular diameter distance $\tilde{d}$ and show that it satisfies…
Astronomical instruments generally possess spatially variant point-spread functions, which determine the amount by which an image pixel is blurred as a function of position. Several techniques have been devised to handle this variability in…
The four observables associated with gravitational lensing of distant quasars by intervening galaxies: image splittings, relative amplifications, time delays, and optical depths, provide separate measures of the strength of the…
We present new results on gravitational lensing over a cosmological Robertson-Walker backgrounds which extend and generalize previous works. Our expressions show the presence of new terms and factors which have been neglected in the…
Gravitational lensing is most often used as a tool to investigate the distribution of (dark) matter in the universe, but, if the mass distribution is known a priori, it becomes, at least in principle, a powerful probe of gravity itself.…