Strong field limit analysis of gravitational retro-lensing

Abstract

We present a complete treatment in the strong field limit of gravitational retro-lensing by a static spherically symmetric compact object having a photon sphere. The results are compared with those corresponding to ordinary lensing in similar strong field situations. As examples of application of the formalism, a supermassive black hole at the galactic center and a stellar mass black hole in the galactic halo are studied as retro-lenses, in both cases using the Schwarzschild and Reissner-Nordstrom geometries.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figure; v2: minor changes. Accepted for publication in Physical Review