Related papers: Topological Defects in Gravitational Lensing Shear…
We investigate a counterintuitive geometric interaction between defects and curvature in thin layers of superfluids, superconductors and liquid crystals deposited on curved surfaces. Each defect feels a geometric potential whose functional…
Given a galaxy image, one cannot simply measure its flexion. An image's spin one and three shape properties, typically associated with F- and G-flexion, are actually complicated functions of the galaxy's intrinsic shape and the telescope's…
Gravitational weak shear produced by large-scale structures of the universe induces a correlated ellipticity distribution of distant galaxies. The amplitude and evolution with angular scale of the signal depend on cosmological models and…
Strong gravitational lensing is a competitive tool to probe the dark matter and energy content of the Universe. However, significant uncertainties can arise from the choice of lens model, and in particular the parameterisation of the line…
Line-of-sight effects in strong gravitational lensing have long been treated as a nuisance. However, it was recently proposed that the line-of-sight shear could be a cosmological observable in its own right, if it is not degenerate with…
Many recent studies have demonstrated that scaling arguments, such as the so-called hierarchical {\em ansatz}, are extremely useful in understanding the statistical properties of weak gravitational lensing. This is especially true on small…
According to the theory of general relativity, masses deflect light in a way similar to convex glass lenses. This gravitational lensing effect is astigmatic, giving rise to image distortions. These distortions allow to quantify cosmic…
The incompatibility of linearized piecewise smooth strain field, arising out of volumetric and surface densities of topological defects and metric anomalies, is investigated. First, general forms of compatibility equations are derived for a…
Weak lensing is the distortion (polarization) of images of distant objects, such as high redshift galaxies, by gravitational fields in the limit where the distortion is small. Gravitational potential fluctuations due to large scale…
Local conformal symmetry introduces the conformal curvature (Weyl tensor) that gets split into its (gravito-) electric and magnetic (tensor) parts. Newtonian tidal forces are expected from the gravitoelectric field, whereas…
Gravitational lenses on galaxy scales are plausibly modelled as having ellipsoidal symmetry and a universal dark matter density profile, with a Sersic profile to describe the distribution of baryonic matter. Predicting all lensing effects…
Weak gravitational lensing is responsible for the shearing and magnification of the images of high-redshift sources due to the presence of intervening matter. The distortions are due to fluctuations in the gravitational potential, and are…
We study the diffusion processes of a real scalar field in the presence of the distorsion field induced by a chiral topological defect. The defect modifies the usual Euclidean background geometry into a non-diagonal Riemann-Cartan geometry…
The study of light lensed by cosmic matter has yielded much information about astrophysical questions. Observations are explained using geometrical optics following a ray-based description of light. After deflection the lensed light…
Optical singularities manifesting at the center of vector vortex beams are unstable, since their topological charge is higher than the lowest value permitted by Maxwell's equations. Inspired by conceptually similar phenomena occurring in…
Gravitational weak lensing maps the location of (dark) matter at all scales. The lens-induced distortion field traces gravity fields and can be used to reconstruct the mass distribution in galaxies, groups, clusters of galaxies or…
The gravitational field of monopoles, cosmic strings and domain walls is studied in the quadratic gravitational theory $R+\alpha R^2$ with $\alpha |R|\ll 1$, and is compared with the result in Einstein's theory. The metric aquires…
Weak gravitational lensing has the potential to constrain cosmological parameters to high precision. However, as shown by the Shear TEsting Programmes (STEP) and GRavitational lEnsing Accuracy Testing (GREAT) Challenges, measuring galaxy…
Primordial scalar perturbations may be generated when complex conformal scalar field rolls down its negative quartic potential. We begin with the discussion of peculiar infrared properties of this scenario. We then consider the statistical…
Magnification of total image fluxes is typically considered a defining feature of gravitational microlensing. In contrast, I will show that nonminimal couplings to gravity can generate regions of negative gravitational potential curvature,…