Consider an elliptical gravitational lens where the potential is modeled by Determine the generic form of

Consider an elliptical gravitational lens where the potential Ψ is modeled by

Determine the generic form of the caustic surfaces, the types of catastrophe encountered, and the change in the number of images formed when a point source crosses these surfaces. Note that it is in the spirit of catastrophe theory not to compute exact expressions but to determine scaling laws and to understand the qualitative features of the images.

Transcribed Image Text:

V (0) = (1 + A0² +2B0₂0₂ +C03¹; 0