Related papers: Distances in Inhomogeneous Cosmological Models
I describe a new approach (developed in collaboration with D.E. Holz) to calculating the statistical distributions for magnification, shear, and rotation of images of cosmological sources due to gravitational lensing by mass inhomogeneities…
This thesis concerns the compatibility of inhomogeneous cosmologies with our present understanding of the universe. It is a problem of some interest to find the class of all relativistic cosmological models which are capable of providing a…
The standard model of cosmology is based on the hypothesis that the Universe is spatially homogeneous and isotropic. When interpreting most observations, this cosmological principle is applied stricto sensu: the light emitted by distant…
Knowing the distance of an astrophysical object is key to understanding it. However, at present, comparisons of theory and observations are hampered by precision (or lack thereof) in distance measurements or estimates. Putting the many…
The relation between angular diameter distance and redshift in a spherically symmetric dust-shell universe is studied. This model has large inhomogeneities of matter distribution on small scales. We have discovered that the relation agrees…
The time delay between images of strongly gravitationally lensed quasars is an established cosmological probe. Its limitations, however, include uncertainties in the assumed mass distribution of the lens. We re-examine the methodology of a…
We investigate the representation of the geometrical information of the universe in terms of the eigenvalues of the Laplacian defined on the universe. We concentrate only on one specific problem along this line: To introduce a concept of…
Advantages of inhomogeneous cosmological models that are exact solutions of Einstein's equations over linearised perturbations of homogeneous models are presented. Examples of effects that can be described in the inhomogeneous ones are…
We study the effect of inhomogeneities in the matter distribution of the universe on the Faraday rotation of light from distant QSOs and derive new limits on the cosmological magnetic field. The matter distribution in the Universe is far…
Gravitational lensing directly measures mass density fluctuations along the lines of sight to very distant objects. No assumptions need to be made concerning bias, the ratio of fluctuations in galaxy density to mass density. Hence, lensing…
We study gravitational lensing when plasma surrounds the lens. An extra deflection angle is induced by the plasma in addition to the deflection generated by gravity. An inhomogeneous plasma distribution generates a greater effect than a…
Examples are presented of applications of the Lema\^{i}tre - Tolman model to problems of astrophysics and gravitation theory. They are: 1. Inferring the spatial distribution of matter by interpretation of observations; 2. Interaction of…
We reformulate the transport equation which determines the size, shape and orientation of infinitesimal light beams in arbitrary spacetimes. The behaviour of such light beams near vertices and conjugate points is investigated, with special…
Waveforms of gravitational waves provide information about a variety of parameters for the binary system merging. However, standard calculations have been performed assuming a FLRW universe with no perturbations. In reality this assumption…
We show that the usual relation between redshift and angular-diameter distance can be obtained by considering light from a source to be gravitationally lensed by material that lies in the telescope beam as it passes from source to observer…
We investigate the potential of weak gravitational lensing maps to differentiate between distinct cosmological models, considering cosmic variance due to a limited map extension and the presence of noise. We introduce a measure of the…
We show that in cosmology the gravitational action of the far away matter has quite relevant effects, if retardation of the forces and discreteness of matter (with its spatial correlation) are taken into account. The expansion rate is found…
Variability in gravitationally lensed quasars can be due to intrinsic fluctuations of the quasar or due to ``microlensing'' by compact objects along the line of sight. If disentangled from each other, microlens-induced variability can be…
Concepts developed in the gravitational lensing techniques such as shear, convergence, tangential and radial arcs maybe used to see how tenable inhomogeneous models proposed to explain the acceleration of the universe models are. We study…
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…