GRAVITATIONAL LENSES EXPLAINED WITH AN EXTENDED THEORY OF GRAVITY

* The theory models the deflection of light when passing near massive bodies * The extension proposed to Einstein´s general relativity also provides a description for the accelerated expansion of the Universe. * Astrophysicists from IA-UNAM pursue their research in gravitation and cosmology. Drs. Sergio Mendoza and Xavier Hernández and their colleagues, at the Instituto de Astronomía (IA) of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) have found a coherent way to explain the deflection of light in galaxies and groups of galaxies (an effect known as gravitational lensing) using their extended theory of gravity, rather than assuming the existence of dark matter particles. Current astrophysical and cosmological phenomenology is typically explained under the assumption of the existence of two dark and as yet directly unobserved entities: dark matter and dark energy. Since this assumption is inferred through gravitational interactions, rather than direct detections, the IA-UNAM researchers have developed an alternative approach based on modifying or extending the theory of gravity