Plasma impact on black hole shadows and gravitational weak lensing in the Einstein–Maxwell-scalar theory

Abstract In this paper, we investigate the optical properties of a non-rotating charged black hole (BH) in the Einstein–Maxwell-scalar (EMS) theory, together with a plasma medium. We first consider the photon sphere and shadow radius under the impact of the plasma medium existing in the environment surrounding the BH in the EMS theory. We show that the radius of the photon sphere and the BH shadow decrease under the influence of the parameter β . We further study gravitational weak lensing in detail by adapting general methods and derive the light ray’s deflection angle around the BH together with the plasma environment. It is found that for uniform plasma, the deflection angle increases with the rise of the plasma parameter, whereas it decreases with the increase of the plasma parameter for non-uniform plasma. Besides, we also study the magnification of image brightness.