Gravitational Lensing from a Spacetime Perspective Volker Perlick Institute of Theoretical Physics TU Berlin Sekr. PN 7-1 Hardenbergstrasse 36 10623 Berlin Germany email:
[email protected] Accepted on 8 July 2004 Published on 17 September 2004 http://www.livingreviews.org/lrr-2004-9 Living Reviews in Relativity Published by the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics Albert Einstein Institute, Germany Abstract The theory of gravitational lensing is reviewed from a spacetime perspective, without quasi-Newtonian approximations. More precisely, the review covers all aspects of gravita- tional lensing where light propagation is described in terms of lightlike geodesics of a metric of Lorentzian signature. It includes the basic equations and the relevant techniques for calcu- lating the position, the shape, and the brightness of images in an arbitrary general-relativistic spacetime. It also includes general theorems on the classification of caustics, on criteria for multiple imaging, and on the possible number of images. The general results are illustrated with examples of spacetimes where the lensing features can be explicitly calculated, including the Schwarzschild spacetime, the Kerr spacetime, the spacetime of a straight string, plane gravitational waves, and others. c Max Planck Society and the authors. Further information on copyright is given at http://relativity.livingreviews.org/Info/Copyright/ For permission to reproduce the article please contact
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