Simulated gravitational lensing in the undergraduate laboratory

Abstract

This paper presents a method for fabricating acrylic lenses that simulate the gravitational deflection of light. The fabricated lenses reproduce key features of strong gravitational lensing, while the simulation is further extended to the weak- and microlensing regimes with images analogous to modern astronomical observations. The simulated mass of the lens is measured from the quantitative analysis of the lensed images in each gravitational lensing regime. These independently measured masses are mutually consistent and agree with the values predicted from the machined lens curvature.