27–30 Apr 2026
Palais des papes, Avignon
Europe/Paris timezone

Gravitational lensing beyond the eikonal approximation

29 Apr 2026, 17:20
10m
Chambre du Trésorier (Palais des papes, Avignon)

Chambre du Trésorier

Palais des papes, Avignon

Speaker

Emma BRUYERE (IAP)

Description

Waves propagating through a gravitational potential exhibit wave-
optics effects when their wavelength is not significantly smaller than the lensing scales. We study the propagation of a scalar wave, governed by the Klein-Gordon equation in curved spacetime, to focus on effects on amplitude and phase, while leaving aside the issue of wave polarization which affects electromagnetic and gravitational waves.
Using the Newman-Penrose formalism, we obtain the first corrections beyond the geometric optics in the expansion in the inverse frequency. We check the analytic results by solving numerically the equations dictating the evolution of the corrections either in the vicinity of a Schwarzschild black hole or through a transparent star.

Author

Emma BRUYERE (IAP)

Presentation materials