Influence of mass multipole moments on the deflection of a light ray by an isolated axisymmetric body

Abstract

Future space astrometry missions are planned to measure positions and/or parallaxes of celestial objects with an accuracy of the order of the microarcsecond. At such a level of accuracy, it will be indispensable to take into account the influence of the mass multipole structure of the giant planets on the bending of light rays. Within the parametrized post-Newtonian formalism, we present an algorithmic procedure enabling us to determine explicitly this influence on a light ray connecting two points located at a finite distance. Then we specialize our formulas in the cases where (1) the light source is located at space infinity, (2) both the light source and the observer are located at space infinity. We examine in detail the cases where the unperturbed ray is in the equatorial plane or in a meridian plane. © 2008 The American Physical Society.