Gravitational Lensing in Standard and Alternative Cosmologies

This thesis contributes to the field of gravitational lensing (GL) and observational cosmology. We discuss the use of gravitational lensing as a tool in search of exotic objects in the Universe. In the next chapter the concordance of an alternative cosmological model with the current gravitational lensing observations is explored and also a non-minimally coupled effective gravity theory that supports non-topological solitonic solutions is considered. In the last chapter we study propagation of light in strong gravitational field. Using geometrical optics approach we show that massless particles with spin deviate from the geodesic motion. We demonstrate that the velocity of photon propagating in a Kerr black hole background remains subluminal.