Light propagation and optical scalars in torsion theories of gravity

Abstract

We investigate the propagation of light rays and evolution of optical scalars in gauge theories of gravity where torsion is present. Recently, the modified Raychaudhuri equation in the presence of torsion has been derived. We use this result to derive the basic equations of geometric optics for several different interesting solutions of the Poincaré gauge theory of gravity. The results show that the focusing effects for neighboring light rays will be different than general relativity. This in turn has practical consequences in the study of gravitational lensing effects and also in determining the angular diameter distance for cosmological objects.