Gravitational deflection of light
At its introduction in 1915, the general theory of relativity did not have a solid empirical foundation. It was known that it correctly accounted for the "anomalous" precession of the perihelion of Mercury and on philosophical grounds it was considered satisfying that it was able to unify Newton's law of universal gravitation with special relativity. That light appeared to bend in gravitational fields in line with the predictions of general relativity was found in 1919 but it was not until a program of precision tests was started in 1959 that the various predictions of general relativity were tested to any further degree of accuracy in the weak gravitational field limit, severely limiting possible deviations from the theory. Beginning in 1974, Hulse, Taylor and others have studied the behaviour of binary pulsars experiencing much stronger gravitational fields than found in our solar system. Both in the weak field limit (as in our solar system) and with the stronger fields present in systems of binary pulsars the predictions of general relativity have been extremely well tested locally.
The very strong gravitational fields that must be present close to black holes, especially those supermassive black holes which are thought to power active galactic nuclei and the more active quasars, belong to a field of intense active research. Observations of these quasars and active galactic nuclei are difficult, and interpretation of the observations is heavily dependent upon astrophysical models other than general relativity or competing fundamental theories of gravitation, but they are qualitatively consistent with the black hole concept as modelled in general relativity.
As a consequence of the equivalence principle, Lorentz invariance holds locally in freely falling reference frames. Experiments related to Lorentz invariance and thus special relativity (i.e., when gravitational effects can be neglected) are described in Tests of special relativity.

This is an excerpt from the article Gravitational deflection of light from the Wikipedia free encyclopedia. A list of authors is available at Wikipedia.
The article Gravitational deflection of light at en.wikipedia.org was accessed 14 times in the last 30 days. (as of: 07/19/2013)
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Gravitational lens - Wikipedia, the free…
A gravitational lens refers to a distribution of matter (such as a cluster of galaxies) between a distant source (a background galaxy) and an observer, that is ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitational_lens
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Gravitational deflection of light — Einstein Online
On one of the fundamental consequences of general relativity: the deflection of light by gravity.
www.einstein-online.info/spotlights/light_deflection
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Tests of general relativity - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
1.1 Perihelion precession of Mercury; 1.2 Deflection of light by the Sun; 1.3 Gravitational redshift of light. 2 Modern tests. 2.1 Post-Newtonian tests of gravity ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tests_of_general_relativity
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Gravity and light
The deflection of light around the Sun was one such predictive success of General Relativity. Gravitational deflection of light. The figure to the left shows three ...
www.theory.caltech.edu/people/patricia/lclens.html
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The Gravitational Deflection of Light in F (R)-gravity
Mar 15, 2013 ... Abstract: The fact that the gravitation could deflect the light trajectory has been confirmed by a large number of observation data, that is ...
arxiv.org/abs/1303.3662
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Gravitational deflection of light and helicity asymmetry - arXiv
Gravitational deflection of light and helicity asymmetry. E. GUADAGNINI. Dipartimento di Fisica Enrico Fermi dell'Universit`a di Pisa and INFN Sezione di Pisa.
arxiv.org/pdf/gr-qc/0207036
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Deflection and Delay of Light - UCLA Astronomy
Dec 29, 2004 ... How does light travel past the Sun? ... but while that is its natural tendency light can be deflected by lenses, mirrors, and by gravitational fields.
www.astro.ucla.edu/~wright/deflection-delay.html
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The bending of light by gravity
The bending of light by gravity. Lars Wåhlin. The proof that light bends near a gravitational body and the attempts to explain this phenomenon is very interesting, ...
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Light Bending
The stronger the force of gravity, the more the light would be bent. The bending would be largest for light passing very close to a very massive body, such as the ...
ircamera.as.arizona.edu/NatSci102/NatSci102/text/lightbend.htm
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Bending Light - MathPages
However, given the finite speed of light, and hence a finite value of h, we can solve this equation to determine the predicted gravitational deflection based on our ...
mathpages.com/rr/s6-03/6-03.htm
Search results for "Gravitational deflection of light"
Gravitational deflection of light in science
Gravitational deflection of light — Einstein Online
Theories of the deflection of light by mass date back at least to the late 18th ... 1919 saw the first successful attempt to measure the Gravitational deflection of light ...
Q & A: Bending Light by Gravity | Department of Physics | University ...
Owen - Technically, the answer to this question is yes. But for all practical purposes, it's no. Let me explain... For most practical purposes, light moves in a straight ...
Gravitational bending of light by planetary multipoles and its ...
Nov 11, 2006 ... We calculate the instantaneous patterns of the light-ray deflections caused by ... Sergei Kopeikin (University of Missouri-Columbia, USA), Valeri ...
The Gravitational Deflection of Light in F (R)-gravity
Mar 15, 2013 ... Abstract: The fact that the gravitation could deflect the light trajectory has been confirmed by a large number of observation data, that is ...
The gravitational deflection of light in MOND
Jun 17, 1994 ... Abstract: The deflection angle $\Delta\phi$ of light rays by the gravitational field of a spherical system $M(r)$ is calculated using the MOdified ...
Newtonian gravitational deflection of light revisited
Aug 3, 2005 ... Abstract: The angle of deflection of a light ray by the gravitational field of the Sun, at grazing incidence, is calculated by strict and straightforward ...
Tests of general relativity - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The entire sky is slightly distorted due to the Gravitational deflection of light caused .... Principal investigators at Stanford University reported on May 4, 2011, that ...
Gravitation and the General Theory of Relativity
We have already seen a spectacular consequence of the deflection of light in a gravitational field: gravitational lensing. The General Theory of Relativity predicts ...
Investigating Mono- and Quadrupole Gravitational Light Deflection ...
Abstract English, Gravitational light deflection in the Solar System can be detected by high precision astrometric measurements. We discuss the parametrized ...
Speed of Light in Gravity
'The Meaning of Relativity', A. Einstein, Princeton University Press (1955). ... Bergmann takes the deflection of light by the gravitational field of a star as evidence ...
Books on the term Gravitational deflection of light
Gravitation
Charles W. Misner, John Archibald Wheeler, 1973
of y), the Gravitational deflection of light and radio waves (discussed below; dependent on y), and the "relativistic time-delay" (discussed below; dependent on y). §40.3. "LIGHT" DEFLECTION Consider a light or radio ray coming into a ...
College Physics, Volume 2, 2nd ed.
Nicholas Giordano, 2011
We can also turn this argument around: the observation (by Newton and many others) that the inertial and gravitational masses are the same leads us to the equivalence principle. 2. Deflection of light by gravity. Figure 27.25 shows another ...
Gravitation: Foundations and Frontiers
This difference is due to the fact that the electromagnetism is based on a vector field while gravity is based on a second rank tensor field. The deflection of light by a gravitational field also leads to an important phenomenon called gravitational ...
A Giant Step: From Milli- to Micro- Arcsecond Astrometry (IAU S248)
International Astronomical Union. Symposium, Wenjing Jin, Imants Platais, 2008
It is a challenge for the SIM and SKA interferometers as well as for Gaia and JASMINE to measure the gravitational bending of light caused by various planetary multipoles and the orbital motion of the planets. This measurement, if successful, ...

Blog posts on the term
Gravitational deflection of light
First-Order Light Deflection by Einstein-Strauss Vacuole Method
Journal of Gravity is a peer-reviewed, open access journal that publishes original research articles as well as review articles related to all aspects of gravity.
www.hindawi.com/journals/gravity/2013/686950/
The gravity of the situation - INSPIRE-HEP
In this thesis we examine several ways in which we can explore the early universe through gravitational-waves and the fundamental nature of gravity through cosmology and observations of dynamics within the solar system. Both of these topics have taken center stage, as we are living at a unique time which promises to bring fundamental insights into the nature of gravity with the discovery of new binary pulsar systems, the building of increasingly precise solar system and tabletop experiments and the birth of gravitational-wave observatories-- to name a few recent and upcoming advances. We first discuss whether we may be able to directly detect gravitational waves from inflation using future space-based interferometers. We then describe how the direct detection of inflationary gravitational waves will allow us to probe the fundamental physics that operated at the earliest moments of the universe. Next, a new constraint to a general cosmological gravitational wave background is presented using the observations of the cosmic microwave background. Moving away from general relativity, we consider alternative theories of gravity. One reason to consider alternative theories of gravity is the observation that the expansion of the universe is currently accelerating. It is possible that this accelerated expansion is due to a modification of gravity. However, any theory that modifies gravity in order to produce accelerated expansion must also conform to the dynamics that we observe within the Solar System. We discuss how the observation of the deflection of light around the Sun places severe limitations on a particular modified gravity theory, known as $f(R)$ gravity. Our discussion of $f(R)$ gravity leads us to ask whether the parameterized post Newtonian parameter, $\gamma_{PPN}$, takes on a universal value. We identify measurements made of strong lensing around early type galaxies in the Sloan Lens ACS (SLACS) survey as a first step in performing this new test of gravity. Finally, we explore some consequences of Chern-Simons gravity. One of the unique aspects of Chern-Simons gravity is that it introduces parity violation into the gravitational sector. As a consequence, it predicts a different gravitomagnetic field around the rotating Earth than is predicted in general relativity. We show how recent measurements of this gravitomagnetic field made by observing the two LAser GEOdynamics Satellites (LAGEOS) and Gravity Probe B satellites constrain Chern-Simons gravity. Finally, we discuss how future observations of binary pulsar systems may allow for a more general exploration of the gravitomagnetic structure around rotating objects. Smith, Tristan Laine
inspirehep.net/record/1247329
Deflection of light by a mass | Physics pages
Reference: Moore, Thomas A., A General Relativity Workbook, University Science Books (2013) - Chapter 13; Problem 13.1. We've seen how to derive the equations of motion for a photon in a gravitational field, so we can now apply these equations to study the deflection of light as it passes a massive object. The equations of…
physicspages.com/2013/08/02/deflection-of-light-by-a-mass/
South Asia Daily: The Red Bed, Eclipse and The Dome
The Red Bed by Mayank Chhaya Eclipse by Mayank Chhaya The Dome by Mayank Chhaya As my Saatchi Online portfolio of digital paintings continues its brisk non-sale it is time to reward me with one more plug on this blog....