Strong gravitational lensing by a strongly naked null singularity

Abstract: We study strong gravitational lensing in a static, spherically symmetric, naked singularity spacetime, without a photon sphere. The nature of the singularity is found to be lightlike. We discuss the characteristic lensing features of this naked singularity in the strong deflection limit. In spite of the absence of a photon sphere in this spacetime, the bending angle of light diverges, as it approaches the singularity. However, unlike black holes, it is found that the nature of this divergence is nonlogarithmic, and we derive an analytic formula for the same. Moreover, the relativistic rings produced due to strong lensing by the singularity are found to be well separated from each other, making them easy to resolve and possibly detect. These features are expected to be important in the study of strong lensing by ultracompact objects, especially ones without event horizons.