Bending of Light by Vector Perturbations

Abstract

A number of different mechanisms exist which can produce vector perturbations to the metric. One might think that such perturbations could deflect light rays from distant sources, producing observable effects. Indeed, this is expected to be the case for scalar perturbations. Here we show that the deflection from vector perturbations is very small, remaining constant over large distances, similar to the deflection due to tensor perturbations (gravity waves).