Sereno, Mauro

Treatment of propagation of light rays in presence of a gravito-magnetic field could greatly benefit from a quite simple formalism. Following Fermat's principle and the standard theory of gravitational lensing, some effects on time delay function and deflection angle caused by an isolated lens with angular momentum can be derived. Gravito-magnetic corrections on number and position of images, magnification, caustics and critical curves, distortion in microlensing-induced light curves, and polarization of light rays in the weak lensing regime can be considered. Realistic mass distributions have to be considered to address real systems. Special emphasis is dedicated on which astrophysical systems, on both galactic and extra-galactic scales, could provide clear observational signatures and on prospects of a future detection.




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