GRAVITATIONAL MESOLENSING BY KING OBJECTS AND QUASAR-GALAXY ASSOCIATIONS

The probability of strong gravitational lensing of distant compact obj ects by transparent lenses with King mass distributions is calculated. Examples of such lenses are globular clusters, dwarf galaxies, and cl usters of hidden mass. The lens masses thus range from 10(3) to 10(9) M., intermediate between stellar and galactic masses. Taking account o f the conic caustic of King lenses and the fractal large-scale distrib ution of matter along the line of sight, it is possible to explain the correlation between quasars and nearby galaxies as the effect of stro ng gravitational lensing of the active nuclei of distant galaxies by g lobular clusters in the halos of nearby galaxies. Observational tests for verifing this mesolensing hypothesis are described.