We investigate the deflection of light by a rotating global monopole spacetime and a rotating Letelier spacetime in the weak deflection approximation. To this end, we apply the Gauss-Bonnet theorem to the corresponding osculating optical geometries and show that the deflection of light increases in each spacetime due to the presence of the global monopole parameter and the string cloud parameter, respectively. The results obtained for the deflection angle in the equatorial plane generalize known results for the corresponding nonrotating global monopole and Letelier spacetimes as well as the Kerr solution.

In this paper, we return to the subject of Jacobi metrics for timelike and null geodesics in stationary spacetimes, correcting some previous misconceptions. We show that not only null geodesics but also timelike geodesics are governed by a Jacobi-Maupertuis type variational principle and a Randers-Finsler metric for which we give explicit formulas. The cases of the Taub-NUT and Kerr spacetimes are discussed in detail. Finally, we show how our Jacobi-Maupertuis Randers-Finsler metric may be expressed in terms of the effective medium describing the behavior of Maxwell’s equations in the curved spacetime. In particular, we see in very concrete terms how the gravitational electric permittivity, magnetic permeability, and magnetoelectric susceptibility enter the Jacobi-Maupertuis Randers-Finsler function.

Electromagnetism in spacetime can be treated in terms of an analogue linear dielectric medium. In this paper, we discuss the gravitational analogue of the linear magnetoelectric effect, which can be found in multiferroic materials. While this is known to occur for metrics with non-zero mixed components, we show how it depends on the choice of spatial formalism for the electromagnetic fields, including differences in tensor weight, and also on the choice of coordinate chart. This is illustrated for Langevin–Minkowski, four charts of Schwarzschild spacetime, and two charts of pp gravitational waves.

We consider light propagation in a spacetime whose kinematics allow weak birefringence, and whose dynamics have recently been derived by gravitational closure. Revisiting the definitions of luminosity and angular diameter distances in this setting, we present a modification of the Etherington distance duality relation in a weak gravitational field around a point mass. This provides the first concrete example of how the non-metricities implied by gravitational closure of birefringent electrodynamics affect observationally testable relations.

This article presents hitherto unpublished correspondence of Struble in 1947 with Menger, Chandrasekhar, and eventually Einstein, about a possible observational test supporting Einstein's special relativity against Ritz's emission theory using binary stars. This `Struble effect,' an acceleration Doppler effect in emission theory, appears to have been overlooked, and the historical context, including de Sitter's binary star test of special relativity, is also discussed.

The standard definition of gravitational lensing magnification is generalized to Lorentzian spacetimes, and it is shown how it can be interpreted geometrically in terms of the van Vleck determinant and the exponential map. This is joint work with Amir B. Aazami (Kavli IPMU, University of Tokyo).