Gravitational lensing can magnify a distant source, revealing structural
detail which is normally unresolvable. Recovering this detail through an
inversion of the influence of gravitational lensing, however, requires
optimisation of not only lens parameters, but also of the surface brightness
distribution of the source. This paper outlines a new approach to this
inversion, utilising genetic algorithms to reconstruct the source profile. In
this initial study, the effects of image degradation due to instrumental and
atmospheric effects are neglected and it is assumed that the lens model is
accurately known, but the genetic algorithm approach can be incorporated into
more general optimisation techniques, allowing the optimisation of both the
parameters for a lensing model and the surface brightness of the source.Comment: 9 pages, to appear in PAS