München 2019 – scientific programme

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GR: Fachverband Gravitation und Relativitätstheorie

GR 1: Classical GR

GR 1.1: Invited Talk

Monday, March 18, 2019, 16:00–16:45, HS 4

Probing the spacetime curvature using geometric optics — •Mikolaj Korzynski, Julius Serbenta, and Michele Grasso — Center for Theoretical Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw

In general relativity light propagation is affected by gravity, leading to the well-known effects of light bending, Shapiro delays and gravitational redshift. On top of that the results of observation of light by an observer are also affected by the special relativistic phenomena like the aberration or time dilation. All these effects influence the measurements of shape, parallax, redshift and position drift (proper motion) of distant objects. We show that all results of those measurements can be understood as functions of the curvature along the line of sight. This opens up the possibility to probe the spacetime curvature directly using optical observations. Applications of the results include cosmology and numerical relativity.