From Solar Eclipse of 1919 to the Spectacle of Gravitational Lensing

Abstract

A century after observing the deflection of light emitted by distant stars during the solar eclipse of 1919, it is interesting to know the concepts emerged from the experiment and the theoretical and observational consequences for modern cosmology and astrophysics. In addition to confirming Einstein's gravitational theory, its greatest legacy was the construction of a new research area to cosmos science dubbed gravitational lensing. The formation and magnification of multiple images (mirages) by the gravitational field of a compact or extended lens are among the most striking phenomena of nature. This article presents a pedagogical view of the first genuine gravitational lens effect, the double quasar QSO 0957 + 561. We also describe the formation of rings, giant arcs, arclets and multiple Supernova images. It is also surprising that the Hubble constant and the amount of dark matter in the Universe can be measured by the same technique. Finally, the lensing of gravitational waves, a possible but still not yet detected effect, is also briefly discussed.

22 pages, 20 figures, in Portuguese

References in corpus (10)

• A direct empirical proof of the existence of dark matter
• Weak lensing for precision cosmology
• H0LiCOW - IX. Cosmographic analysis of the doubly imaged quasar SDSS 1206+4332 and a new measurement of the Hubble constant
• Multiple Images of a Highly Magnified Supernova Formed by an Early-Type Cluster Galaxy Lens
• Prospects for resolving the Hubble constant tension with standard sirens
• Microlensing Searches for Exoplanets
• Listening to the gravitational wave sound of circumbinary exoplanets
• New insights on the dissociative merging galaxy cluster Abell 2034
• Thirty-fold: Extreme gravitational lensing of a quiescent galaxy at $z=1.6$
• Clues to the nature of dark matter from first galaxies