Lensing Effects in Retarded Gravity

TL;DR

This paper proposes that accounting for retardation effects in general relativity can explain gravitational lensing phenomena in galaxies and clusters without invoking dark matter or modified gravity laws.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach considering retarded gravity effects in general relativity to explain lensing, challenging the need for dark matter or MOND.

Findings

Retardation effects can account for observed lensing phenomena.

General relativistic effects explain excess gravitational influence.

Potential to reduce reliance on dark matter hypotheses.

Abstract

Galaxies are gigantic physical systems having a typical size of many tens of thousands of light years. Thus any change at the center of the galaxy will affect the rim only tens of millennia later. Those retardation effects seems to be ignored in present day modelling used to calculate rotational velocities of matter in the outskirts of the galaxy and the surrounding gas. The significant discrepancies between the velocities predicted by Newtonian theory and observed velocities are usually handled by either assuming an unobservable type of matter denoted "dark matter" or by modifying the laws of gravity (MOND as an example). Here we will show that considering general relativistic effects without neglecting retardation one can explain the apparent excess matter leading to gravitational lensing in both galaxies and galaxy clusters.