Ray Optics, Fermats Principle, and Applications to General Relativity

Focusing on the mathematical theory of light propagation in general-relativistic spacetimes, the book transitions from Maxwell's equations to ray optics and establishes a robust mathematical framework for ray optics using Hamiltonian formalism. It delves into variational principles related to Fermat's principle for light rays in these media, with some novel results presented for the first time. Applications such as gravitational lensing are explored, catering to readers with a foundational understanding of general relativity and differential geometry.