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Strong gravitational lensing and stellar dynamics are independent and powerful methods to probe the total gravitational potential of galaxies, and thus, their total mass profile. However, inherent degeneracies in the individual models makes…
Context. Strong lenses are a biased subset of the general population of galaxies. Aims. The goal of this work is to quantify how lens galaxies and lensed sources differ from their parent distribution, namely the strong lensing bias.…
We use AStroLens, a newly developed gravitational lens-modeling code that relies only on geometric and photometric information of cluster galaxies as input, to map the strong-lensing regions and estimate the lensing strength of 96 galaxy…
We report the discovery of an almost complete Einstein ring of diameter 10" in Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 5 (DR5). Spectroscopic data from the 6m telescope of the Special Astrophysical Observatory reveals that the…
By using deep observations of clusters of galaxies, it has been recently found that the projected stellar mass density closely follows the projected total (dark and baryonic) mass density within the innermost ~140 kpc. In this work, we aim…
We develop a theory of Einstein rings and demonstrate it using the infrared Einstein ring images of the quasar host galaxies observed in PG1115+080, B1608+656 and B1938+666. The shape of an Einstein ring accurately and independently…
We report on the discovery of a very bright z = 2.00 star-forming galaxy that is strongly lensed by a foreground z=0.422 luminous red galaxy (LRG). This system was found in a systematic search for bright arcs lensed by LRGs and brightest…
Precise modelling of strong lensing systems can be affected by external mass distributions, e.g. the group or cluster within which the lens is embedded. In this article, we propose to turn this limitation to our advantage and to use precise…
The non-detection of dark matter (DM) particles in increasingly stringent laboratory searches has encouraged alternative gravity theories where gravity is sourced only from visible matter. Here, we consider whether such theories can pass a…
We report on SPT-CLJ2011-5228, a giant system of arcs created by a cluster at $z=1.06$. The arc system is notable for the presence of a bright central image. The source is a Lyman Break galaxy at $z_s=2.39$ and the mass enclosed within the…
We present a strong lensing analysis of the galaxy cluster Abell 370 (z=0.375) based on the recent multicolor ACS images obtained as part of the Early Release Observation (ERO) that followed the Hubble Service Mission #4. Back in 1987, the…
In the coming years, strong gravitational lens discoveries are expected to increase in frequency by two orders of magnitude. Lens-modelling techniques are being developed to prepare for the coming massive influx of new lens data, and blind…
We investigated the ability of the Euclid telescope to detect galaxy-scale gravitational lenses. To do so, we performed a systematic visual inspection of the $0.7\,\rm{deg}^2$ Euclid Early Release Observations data towards the Perseus…
We discuss the ratio of the angular diameter distances from the source to the lens, $D_{ds}$, and to the observer at present, $D_{s}$, for various dark energy models. It is well known that the difference of $D_s$s between the models is…
We consider global and gravitational lensing properties of the recently suggested Einstein clusters of WIMPs as galactic dark matter halos. Being tangential pressure dominated, Einstein clusters are strongly anisotropic systems which can…
Strong lensing has developed into an important astrophysical tool for probing both cosmology and galaxies (their structure, formation, and evolution). Using the gravitational lensing theory and cluster mass distribution model, we try to…
Can the standard cosmological model be questioned on the basis of a single observed extreme galaxy cluster? Usually, the word extreme refers directly to cluster mass, which is not a direct observable and thus subject to substantial…
(Abridged) We present a joint gravitational lensing and stellar dynamical analysis of fifteen massive field early-type galaxies, selected from the Sloan Lens (SLACS) Survey. The following numerical results are found: (i) A joint-likelihood…
We present the first detection of a gravitational depletion signal at near-infrared wavelengths, based on deep panoramic images of the cluster Abell 2219 (z=0.22) taken with the Cambridge Infrared Survey Instrument (CIRSI) at the prime…
We analyze PLANET photometric observations of the caustic-crossing binary-lens microlensing event, EROS BLG-2000-5, and find that modeling the observed light curve requires incorporation of the microlens parallax and the binary orbital…