Related papers: Dark-Matter Content of Early-Type Galaxies with Pl…
Nearby masses can have a high probability of lensing stars in a distant background field. High-probability lensing, or mesolensing, can therefore be used to dramatically increase our knowledge of dark and dim objects in the solar…
We propose a new technique to directly measure the shapes of dark matter halos of galaxies using weak gravitational lensing. Extending the standard galaxy-galaxy lensing method, we show that the shape parameters of the mass distribution of…
Galaxies are faint enough when one observes just their light distributions, but in studying their full dynamical structure the stars are spread over the six dimensions of phase space rather than just the three spatial dimensions, making…
Gravitational microlensing is known for baryoninc dark matter searches. Here we show that microlensing also provides a unique tool for the detection of low mass planets (such as earths and neptunes) from the ground. A planetary system forms…
While kinematical modelling of the low PN velocity dispersions observed in the outer regions of elliptical galaxies suggest a lack of dark matter around these galaxies, we report on an analysis of a suite of $N$-body simulations (with gas)…
We study the dust present in 56 Galactic planetary nebulae (PNe) through their iron depletion factors, their C/O abundance ratios (in 51 objects), and the dust features that appear in their infrared spectra (for 33 objects). Our sample…
There are a number of theoretical and observational hints that large numbers of low-mass galaxies composed entirely of dark matter exist in the field. The theoretical considerations follow from the prediction of cold dark matter theory that…
This paper represents the conclusion of a project that had two main goals: (1) to investigate to what extent planetary nebulae (PNe) are chemically homogeneous; and (2) to provide physical constraints on the central star properties of each…
We study dark matter content in early-type galaxies and investigate whether X-ray luminosities of early-type galaxies are determined by the surrounding gravitational potential. We derived gravitational mass profiles of 22 early-type…
SNAP is a candidate for the Joint Dark Energy Mission (JDEM) that seeks to place constraints on the dark energy using two distinct methods. The first, Type Ia SN, is discussed in a companion white paper. The second method is weak…
The actual value of the oxygen abundance of the metal-poor planetary nebula PN G135.9+55.9 has frequently been debated in the literature. We wanted to clarify the situation by making an improved abundance determination based on a study that…
Precision astrometry offers a way to probe new physics. By measuring the angular position of light sources at unprecedented precision, astrometry could probe minuscule fluctuations of underlying spacetime. This work explores the possibility…
A new instrument is providing crucial data with which to probe the structure of dark halos in elliptical galaxies.
Astrometric weak gravitational lensing is a powerful probe of the distribution of matter on sub-Galactic scales, which harbor important information about the fundamental nature of dark matter. We propose a novel method that utilizes angular…
We develop a method to measure the probability, P(N;M), of finding N galaxies in a dark-matter halo of mass M from the theoretically determined clustering properties of dark-matter halos and the observationally measured clustering…
We investigate stellar mass and central dark matter density profiles of photometric luminous red galaxies with stellar masses of $\sim10^{10}-10^{12}M_\odot$ using weak gravitational lensing measurements from the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru…
We introduce a self-similar mass model for early-type galaxies, and constrain it using the aperture mass-radius relations determined from the geometries of 22 gravitational lenses. The model consists of two components: a concentrated…
Dark matter in the Universe consisting of macroscopic objects such as primordial black holes may cause gravitational lensing of distant objects. The magnification associated with lensing will lead to additional scatter in the received flux…
One of the possible explanations for dark matter is that of compact dark objects of baryonic origin, such as black holes or even planets. Accumulating evidence, including the discovery of merging stellar mass black holes through…
We present new Planetary Nebula Spectrograph observations of the ordinary elliptical galaxy NGC 4494, resulting in positions and velocities of 255 PNe out to 7 effective radii (25 kpc). We also present new wide-field surface photometry from…