Related papers: How Far Away are Gravitational Lens Caustics? Wron…
We re-analyze constraints on the cosmological constant that can be obtained by examining the statistics of strong gravitational lensing of distant quasars by intervening galaxies, focusing on uncertainties in galaxy models (including…
We have previously reported the discovery of strong gravitational lensing by faint elliptical galaxies using the WFPC2 on HST and here we investigate their potential usefulness in putting constraints on lens mass models. We compare various…
We consider gravitational lensing of a background source by a finite system of point-masses. The problem of determining the maximum possible number of lensed images has been completely resolved in the single-plane setting (where the point…
The established way of looking at special relativity is based on Einstein postulates: the principle of relativity and the constancy of the velocity of light. In the most general geometric approach to the theory of special relativity, the…
We consider the standard problem of observational astronomy, i.e. the observations of light emission from a distant region of spacetime in general relativity. The goal is to describe the changes between the measurements of the light…
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…
The laws of geometric optics and their corrections are derived for scalar, electromagnetic, and gravitational waves propagating in generic curved spacetimes. Local peeling-type results are obtained, where different components of…
We describe the feasibility of detecting the gravitational deflection of light emitted by stars moving under the influence of the massive object at the Galactic center. Light emitted by a star orbiting behind the central mass has a smaller…
The purpose of these lecture notes is to describe the gravitational lens effects in different astrophysical contexts. These notes are voluntarily focused on the fundamental mechanisms and the basic concepts that are useful to describe these…
Frequency-dependent gravitational lens effects are found for trajectories of electromagnetic rays passing through a distribution of plasma near a massive object. Ray propagation through plasma adds extra terms to the equations of motion…
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…
The bending of lightrays by the gravitational field of a ``lens'' that is moving relative to the observer is calculated within the approximation of weak fields, small angles and thin lenses. Up to first order in $v/c$ -- and assuming the…
Despite the fact that quantum gravity theory still remains elusive, it is generally expected that it will bring the picture of a space-time foam at short distances leading to Lorenz Invariance Violation (LIV) manifested e.g. by energy…
Gravitational lensing offers unique opportunities to learn about the astrophysical origin of distant sources, the abundance of intervening objects acting as lenses, and gravity and cosmology in general. However, all this information can…
The recent study of the strong gravitational lens ESO 325-G004 [1] leads to a new possibility for testing General Relativity and its extensions. Such gravity lens observational studies can be instrumental for establishing a limitation on…
We show that oscillating (real-scalar) boson stars can act as strictly periodic gravitational lenses and generically host an \emph{oscillating radial caustic}. Sources near this caustic cross it every half period, producing achromatic…
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.…
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.…
Gravitational waves can act like gravitational lenses, affecting the observed positions, brightnesses, and redshifts of distant objects. Exact expressions for such effects are derived here in general relativity, allowing for…
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…