Gravitational lensing by magnetized compact object in the presence of plasma

TL;DR

This paper investigates how magnetic fields and plasma influence gravitational lensing around compact objects, revealing effects like image splitting, altered magnification, and plasma-dependent time delays.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive analysis of plasma and magnetic field effects on gravitational lensing, including image splitting, magnification changes, and time delay variations.

Findings

Magnetic fields cause image splitting similar to Zeeman effect.

Plasma parameters significantly influence time delays.

Inhomogeneous plasma alters lensing characteristics.

Abstract

We study the gravitational lensing in the weak field approximation assuming the presence of a plasma and of a magnetic field around a compact gravitational source. The external magnetic field causes the split of the image, as the counterpart of the Zeeman effect. The magnetic field affects the magnification of images, creating additional components. We also study the time delay of an electromagnetic signal due to the geometry and the gravitational field around the source. We show that the time delay strongly depends on the plasma parameters. Lastly, we consider the effects of the presence of an inhomogeneous plasma on the gravitational lensing.