Retrolensing by a charged black hole

Abstract

Compact objects with a light sphere such as black holes and wormholes can reflect light rays like a mirror. This gravitational lensing phenomenon is called retrolensing and it is an interesting tool to survey dark and compact objects with a light sphere near the solar system. In this paper, we calculate the deflection angle analytically in the strong deflection limit in the Reissner-Nordstrom spacetime without Taylor expanding it in the power of the electric charge. Using the obtained deflection angle in the strong deflection limit, we investigate the retrolensing light curves and the separation of double images by the light sphere of Reissner-Nordstrom black holes.

24 pages, 11 figures, minor correction, accepted for publication in Physical Review D