Gravitational lensing by compact objects within plasma

Abstract: Frequency-dependent gravitational lens effects are found for trajectories of electromagnetic rays passing through a distribution of plasma near a massive object. Ray propagation through plasma adds extra terms to the equations of motion that depend on the plasma refractive index. For low-frequency rays these refractive effects can dominate, turning the gravitational lens into a mirror. While light rays behave like particles with an effective mass given by the plasma frequency in a medium with constant density, an inhomogeneous plasma introduces more complicated behavior even for the spherically symmetric case. As a physical example, the pulse profile of a compact object sheathed in a dense plasma is examined, which introduces dramatic frequency-dependent shifts from the behavior in vacuum.