Astrophysics of Bertrand Space-times

We construct a model for galactic dark matter that arises as a solution of Einstein gravity, and is a Bertrand space-time matched with an external Schwarzschild metric. This model can explain galactic rotation curves. Further, we study gravitational lensing in these space-times, and in particular we consider Einstein rings, using the strong lensing formalism of Virbhadra and Ellis. Our results are in good agreement with observational data, and indicate that under certain conditions, gravitational lensing effects from galactic dark matter may be similar to that from Schwarzschild backgrounds.