Creating images by adding masses to gravitational point lenses

DOI10.1007/S10714-015-1876-6zbMATH Open1317.83019arXiv1405.2785OpenAlexW1975604257WikidataQ57558431 ScholiaQ57558431MaRDI QIDQ2353802FDOQ2353802

Authors: Olivier Sète, Robert Luce, Jörg Liesen 

Publication date: 9 July 2015

Published in: General Relativity and Gravitation (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: A well-studied maximal gravitational point lens construction of S. H. Rhie produces $5n$ images of a light source using $n+1$ deflector masses. The construction arises from a circular, symmetric deflector configuration on $n$ masses (producing only $3n+1$ images) by adding a tiny mass in the center of the other mass positions (and reducing all the other masses a little bit). In a recent paper we studied this "image creating effect" from a purely mathematical point of view (S`ete, Luce & Liesen, Comput. Methods Funct. Theory 15(1):9-35, 2015). Here we discuss a few consequences of our findings for gravitational microlensing models. We present a complete characterization of the effect of adding small masses to these point lens models, with respect to the number of images. In particular, we give several examples of maximal lensing models that are different from Rhie's construction and that do not share its highly symmetric appearance. We give generally applicable conditions that allow the construction of maximal point lenses on $n+1$ masses from maximal lenses on $n$ masses.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1405.2785

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zbMATH Keywords

gravitational lensesmultiple imagesmaximal lensing

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Equations of motion in general relativity and gravitational theory (83C10) Galactic and stellar dynamics (85A05)

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Cited In (10)

• Visual Exploration of Complex Functions
• About the cover: visualization of harmonic functions
• How constant shifts affect the zeros of certain rational harmonic functions
• The maximum number of zeros of \(r(z) - \overline{z}\) revisited
• The valence of harmonic polynomials viewed through the probabilistic lens
• Gravitational lensing and the maximum number of images
• Multiplane gravitational lenses with an abundance of images
• Sharp parameter bounds for certain maximal point lenses
• On the number of equilibria balancing Newtonian point masses with a central force
• Maximal lensing: mass constraints on point lens configurations

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