Plasma lensing with magnetic field and a small correction to the Faraday rotation measurement (2304.13210v1)

Abstract: Plasma lensing displays interesting characteristics that set it apart from gravitational lensing. The magnetised medium induces birefringence in the two polarisation modes. As the lensing deflection grows stronger, e.g. when images form near the critical curve, the geometric delay of the signal can cause rotation in linear polarisation, in addition to Faraday rotation. This rotation has a frequency dependence to the power of four. We study the geometric rotation of the lensed image in a Gaussian density model and find that it is necessary to take into account the geometric rotation when estimating magnetised media, especially in the under-dense lens. At frequencies of $\sim 1$ GHz or lower, the geometric rotation can dominate. We simulate the flux of lensed images and find that when the image forms near the lensing critical curve, the birefringence can convert the linear polarisation and un-polarisation pulse into a circular mode. The lensing magnification has the potential to increase the probability of detecting such events.