Gravitational lensing

The gravitational light deflection is the phenomenon predicted by the General Relativity. It produces magnification and distortion of the images of distant astrophysical sources (e.g. stars, quasars, galaxies) located behind other massive bodies called the lenses (e.g. other stars, galaxies or even galaxy clusters). The term "gravitational lensing" is used to describe various techniques for deriving the properties of the lens on the basis of the observed images. During the course, the theory of the light propagation in the curved space-times is presented together with the detailed description of the three main applications: the microlensing, the weak lensing, and the strong lensing.

 

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