Gravitational lenses in arbitrary space-times
Abstract
The precision reached by current and forthcoming strong-lensing observations requires to accurately model various perturbations to the main deflector. Hitherto, theoretical models have been developed to account for either cosmological line-of-sight perturbations, or isolated secondary lenses via the multi-plane lensing framework. This article proposes a general formalism to describe multiple lenses within an arbitrary space-time background. The lens equation, and the expressions of the amplification and time delays, are rigorously derived in that framework. Our results may be applied to a wide range of set-ups, from strong lensing in anisotropic cosmologies, to line-of-sight perturbations beyond the tidal regime.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2011.04440,
title = {Gravitational lenses in arbitrary space-times},
author = {Pierre Fleury and Julien Larena and Jean-Philippe Uzan},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2011.04440},
year = {2022}
}
Comments
23+6 pages, 9 figures; v3: enriched sec. 2, matches the version published in Classical and Quantum Gravity, except the addition of an important reference (Schneider 2019); v4: minor typos corrected