# Probing dark fluids and modified gravity with gravitational lensing

## TL;DR

This paper derives an analytic expression for gravitational lensing deflection angles in a general spherically symmetric spacetime influenced by dark fluids or modified gravity, extending previous models and constraining these theories with observational data.

## Contribution

It generalizes the Rindler-Ishak result to include arbitrary spherically symmetric fluids, providing a new analytic formula for lensing in such spacetimes and linking it to observational constraints.

## Key findings

- Derived a first-order analytic expression for deflection angles in general static spherically symmetric metrics.
- Verified the analytic formula against exact numerical calculations.
- Used observational data to constrain properties of dark fluids and modified gravity theories.

## Abstract

We generalize the Rindler-Ishak (2007) result for the lensing deflection angle in a SdS spacetime, to the case of a general spherically symmetric fluid beyond the cosmological constant. We thus derive an analytic expression to first post-Newtonian order for the lensing deflection angle in a general static spherically symmetric metric of the form $ ds^2 = f(r)dt^{2} -\frac{dr^{2}}{f(r)}-r^{2}(d\theta ^2 +\sin ^2 \theta d\phi ^2)$ with $f(r) = 1 - \frac{2m}{r}-\sum_{i} b_i\; r_0^{-q_i}\; \left( \frac{r_0}{r}\right)^{q_i}$ where $r_0$ is the lensing impact parameter, $b_i\ll r_0^{q_i}$, $m$ is the mass of the lens and $q_i$ are real arbitrary constants related to the properties of the fluid that surrounds the lens or to modified gravity. This is a generalization of the well known Kiselev black hole metric. The approximate analytic expression of the deflection angle is verified by an exact numerical derivation and in special cases it reduces to results of previous studies. The density and pressure of the spherically symmetric fluid that induces this metric is derived in terms of the constants $b_i$. The Kiselev case of a Schwarzschild metric perturbed by a general spherically symmetric dark fluid (eg vacuum energy) is studied in some detail and consistency with the special case of Rindler Ishak result is found for the case of a cosmological constant background. Observational data of the Einstein radii from distant clusters of galaxies lead to observational constraints on the constants $b_i$ and through them on the density and pressure of dark fluids, field theories or modified gravity theories that could induce this metric.