Spacetime Perspective of Gravitational Lensing in Perturbed Cosmologies

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Kling, Thomas P., Pooler, Sophia MacQueen
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Kling, Thomas P.
Pooler, Sophia MacQueen
author_facet Kling, Thomas P.
Pooler, Sophia MacQueen
contents We develop the spacetime approach to gravitational lensing by spherically symmetric perturbations of flat, cosmological constant-dominated Friedman-Robertson-Walker metrics. The geodesics of the spacetime are expressed as integral expressions which are used to examine the formation of multiple images and the observed shapes of non-point sources. We develop the lens mapping from the spacetime perspective, and use the Jacobian of the mapping to explain the observed image shapes. Approaching the geodesic equations as ordinary differential equations, we demonstrate the development of wave front singularities and time delays between light ray signals. This work demonstrates that the widely used thin lens approximation can be replaced with more robust techniques aligned with general relativity.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_11787
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Spacetime Perspective of Gravitational Lensing in Perturbed Cosmologies
Kling, Thomas P.
Pooler, Sophia MacQueen
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
We develop the spacetime approach to gravitational lensing by spherically symmetric perturbations of flat, cosmological constant-dominated Friedman-Robertson-Walker metrics. The geodesics of the spacetime are expressed as integral expressions which are used to examine the formation of multiple images and the observed shapes of non-point sources. We develop the lens mapping from the spacetime perspective, and use the Jacobian of the mapping to explain the observed image shapes. Approaching the geodesic equations as ordinary differential equations, we demonstrate the development of wave front singularities and time delays between light ray signals. This work demonstrates that the widely used thin lens approximation can be replaced with more robust techniques aligned with general relativity.
title Spacetime Perspective of Gravitational Lensing in Perturbed Cosmologies
topic General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.11787