Perturbation Theory of Multi-Plane Lens Effects in Terms of Mass Ratios --- Approximate Expressions of Lensed-Image Positions for Two Lens Planes ---
Abstract
Continuing work initiated in an earlier publication (H. Asada, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 394 (2009), 818), we make a systematic attempt to determine, as a function of lens and source parameters, the positions of images by multi-plane gravitational lenses. By extending the previous single-plane work, we present a method of Taylor-series expansion to solve the multi-plane lens equation in terms of mass ratios except for the neighborhood of the caustics. The advantage of this method is that it allows a systematic iterative analysis and clarifies the dependence on lens and source parameters. In concordance with the multi-plane lensed-image counting theorem that the lower bound on the image number is 2^N for N planes with a single point mass on each plane, our iterative results show how 2^N images are realized. Numerical tests are done to investigate if the Taylor expansion method is robust. The method with a small mass ratio works well for changing a plane separation, whereas it breaks down in the inner domain near the caustics.
- Publication:
-
Progress of Theoretical Physics
- Pub Date:
- February 2012
- DOI:
- 10.1143/PTP.127.355
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1012.0070
- Bibcode:
- 2012PThPh.127..355I
- Keywords:
-
- Astrophysics - Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics;
- General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
- E-Print:
- 13 pages, 2 figures