Perturbation theory of N point-mass gravitational lens systems without symmetry: small mass-ratio approximation

TL;DR

This paper develops a perturbation theory approach to determine gravitational lens image positions for systems with multiple point masses without symmetry, using small mass-ratio approximations and systematic iterative analysis.

Contribution

It introduces a novel perturbative method to analyze arbitrary N-point mass gravitational lens systems without symmetry, extending previous approaches and clarifying image dependence on parameters.

Findings

Perturbative roots include physical and unphysical solutions.

Systematic iterative analysis up to third order in binary systems.

Number of small-mass-ratio images is less than the maximum possible.

Abstract

This paper makes the first systematic attempt to determine using perturbation theory the positions of images by gravitational lensing due to arbitrary number of coplanar masses without any symmetry on a plane, as a function of lens and source parameters. We present a method of Taylor-series expansion to solve the lens equation under a small mass-ratio approximation. First, we investigate perturbative structures of a single-complex-variable polynomial, which has been commonly used. Perturbative roots are found. Some roots represent positions of lensed images, while the others are unphysical because they do not satisfy the lens equation. This is consistent with a fact that the degree of the polynomial, namely the number of zeros, exceeds the maximum number of lensed images if N=3 (or more). The theorem never tells which roots are physical (or unphysical). In this paper, unphysical ones are identified. Secondly, to avoid unphysical roots, we re-examine the lens equation. The advantage of our method is that it allows a systematic iterative analysis. We determine image positions for binary lens systems up to the third order in mass ratios and for arbitrary N point masses up to the second order. This clarifies the dependence on parameters. Thirdly, the number of the images that admit a small mass-ratio limit is less than the maximum number. It is suggested that positions of extra images could not be expressed as Maclaurin series in mass ratios. Magnifications are finally discussed.