SearcharxivSearch

arXiv · astro-ph/0412275

Average magnification effect of clumping of matter

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to re-examine the question of the average magnification in a universe with some inhomogeneously distributed matter. We present an analytic proof, valid under rather general conditions, including clumps of any shape and size, and strong lensing, that so long as the clumps are uncorrelated the average \emph{reciprocal} magnification (in one of several possible senses) is precisely the same as in a homogeneous universe with equal mean density. From this result, we also show that a similar statement can be made about one definition of average \emph{direct} magnification. We discuss, in the context of observations of discrete and extended sources, the physical significance of the various different measures of magnification and the circumstances in which they are appropriate.

Explore related subjects

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

T. W. B. Kibble, Richard Lieu. 2005-06-20. Average magnification effect of clumping of matter. https://doi.org/10.1086/444343

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

A survey of debris trails from short-period comets

We observed 34 comets using the 24 micron camera on the Spitzer Space Telescope. Each image contains the nucleus and covers at least 10^6 km of each comet's orbit. Debris trails due to mm-sized or larger particles were found along the orbits of 27 comets; 4 comets had small-particle dust tails and a viewing geometry that made debris trails impossible to distinguish; and only 3 had no debris trail despite favorable observing conditions. There are now 30 Jupiter-family comets with known debris trails, of which 22 are reported in this paper for the first time. The detection rate is >80%, indicating that debris trails are a generic feature of short-period comets. By comparison to orbital calculations for particles of a range of sizes ejected over 2 yr prior to observation, we find that particles comprising 4 debris trails are typically mm-sized while the remainder of the debris trails require particles larger than this. The lower-limit masses of the debris trails are typically 10^11 g, and the median mass loss rate is 2 kg/s. The mass-loss rate in trail particles is comparable to that inferred from OH production rates and larger than that inferred from visible-light scattering in comae.

astro-ph

Deformation procedure for scalar fields in cosmology

This work offers an extension of the deformation procedure introduced in field theory to the case of standard cosmology in the presence of real scalar field in flat space-time. The procedure is shown to work for many models, which give rise to several different cosmic scenarios, evolving under the presence of first-order differential equations which solve the corresponding equations of motion very appropriately.

astro-ph