1998/09/28 by E. Audit, Edouard Audit, John F. L. Simmons +1 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Galaxy #Gravitational lens #Gravitational lensing formalism #Optics #Physics #Polarimetry #Polarization (electrochemistry) #Quasar #Redshift #Scattering #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #Strong gravitational lensing #Weak gravitational lensing #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1046/j.1365-8711.1999.02226.x
13 pages, 11 figures, uses mnras style file. Accepted for publication in MNRAS
arxiv created 1998/09/28 · openalex publication_date 1999/02/11 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
The measurement of the integrated optical polarization of weakly gravitationally lensed galaxies can provide considerable constraints on lens models. The method outlined depends on the fact that the orientation of the direction of optical polarization is not affected by weak gravitational lensing. The angle between the semi-major axis of the imaged galaxy and the direction of integrated optical polarization thus informs one of the distortion produced by the gravitational lensing. Although the method depends on the polarimetric measurement of faint galaxies, large telescopes and improved techniques should make such measurements possible in the near future.