The Mathematics of Gravitational Lensing

Genti Vuthi

April 15, 2022

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1 Introduction

Albert Einstein had made waves in the field of physics when he had his theory of special
relativity brought forth. However it was only a piece to the puzzle towards understanding
the mysteries of the cosmos. In November of 1915 however, Einstein would publish his
theory of general relativity and bring in a more complete picture of his past work [2]. A
major point in his theory was that massive objects distort space and time like a fabric. This
also led to a physical explanation of gravity as well since gravity can be described as the
curved distortions from the massive objects[2]. This meant that gravity was also capable of
bending light around cosmic objects which had profound effects in us being able to observe
the cosmos. The goal of this paper is discuss some of the astounding mathematics behind
this phenomena and see how it allows us get a little bit closer to understanding the universe.

2 What is gravitational lensing?

Surprisingly the concept of gravitational lensing was proposed over 100 years before Einstein
by Johann Georg von Soldner in 1801 using the Newtonian framework[1]. He had found
what was called the deflection angle defined as

2GM
α= v2 r

By the time Einstein got to the scene he had derived the result and by 1915 had found
a new result defined as

4GM
α= c2 r

This angle is essentially the angle given when lensing occurs, causing a shift in where a
cosmic object is located. An example can be shown in the figure below with the sun
The angle between the true position and apparent position being the alpha discussed
above. Our sun has angle of 1.7”[1].

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 The gravitational deflection done here has a set of equations to be solved which leads to
finding the deflection angle using calculus. The figure below shows the conceptual parameters
used with the equations.

The following equations use the equation for space time in its differential form and it is
applied to Poisson’s equation and the geodesic equation with the given null path condition
[1]. Poisson’s equation is just a differential equation used to solved for a function ϕ. A
geodesic is what a ”straight line” would look like in curved space time and so there is a
equation that can be used to solve for them. Lastly, the null condition determines if the
geodesic has tangent vectors or not. All of this is done to essentially solve for the path of
the light’s path and also be able to find the deflection angle[1]. Here are the equations

Now the deflection angle can only be found if the deflection is small for this so then this
equation can be used for alpha, shown in the next figure.

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 A quick example shown in the figure gives an idea of how the angle would be found for
a point mass, as it is easier to do using a singular point mass,

S is the star, O is the observer and M is the middle point.

Of course, reality is harder to actually model since the distances between the source and
observer are very far apart so a lens plane is used to find the deflection angle. The figures
below use the conceptual model behind it, and then the surface density of plane, and finally
the deflection angle equation.

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 Now the photon path can be found for these scenarios using the lens equation which is
shown above. Finally, this allows for the values of other variables to be found and allows for
the finding of the Einstein radius which determines how strongly lensed an image is and if
there are multiple images or not. The figure below shows the lens equation in a simplified
form and the equation for the Einstein radius as well.

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 These are the essential basics that are used to determine the photon path and allow
for the ability to peer accurately into the cosmos more easily. The most simplified type of
gravitational lensing is the Einstein ring where the lens, source, and observer all lie on the
same line to get the ring. The figures below show the diagram and actual examples of an
Einstein Ring.

3 Conclusion

This was the basic rundown of how gravitational lensing works, it uses complicated math-
ematics to describe the interesting principles of Einstein’s GR theory. Another important
to note is that there are multiple types of lensing that exist in the cosmos with their own
unique parameters. Also, lensing allows for us to peer into other galaxies and cosmic ob-
jects because it amplifies the light that is distorted which gives us a better view of those

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objects[2]. This has allowed us to observe things such as galaxy clusters and even notice the
odd clustering which the formulation of the dark matter to exist [2]. Gravitational lensing
has been an invaluable tool towards our understanding of physics and the universe. Here are
some examples of galaxy cluster lensing which are a sight to behold.

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References

[1] Gravitational lensing lecture, url = https://lweb.cfa.harvard.edu/ dfabri-

cant/huchra/ay202/lectures/lecture12.pdf , note:all figures were from this site.

[2] Gravitational lensing, url = https://hubblesite.org/contents/articles/gravitational-

lensing.