Related papers: A GPU-Enabled, High-Resolution Cosmological Microl…
We use archival data of NASA's Chandra X-ray telescope to compile an X-ray light curve of all four images of the quadruply lensed quasar Q2237+0305 (z=1.695) from January 2006 to January 2007. We fit simulated point spread functions to the…
We show that observation of the time-dependent effect of microlensing of relativistically broadened emission lines (such as e.g. the Fe Kalpha line in X-rays) in strongly lensed quasars could provide data on celestial mechanics of circular…
The abundance of peaks in weak gravitational lensing maps is a potentially powerful cosmological tool, complementary to measurements of the shear power spectrum. We study peaks detected directly in shear maps, rather than convergence maps,…
We use X-ray observations of quasar microlensing (sensitive to smaller compact objects than in the optical) to study the possible presence of a population of low mass black holes (from $\sim$ $10^{-3}M_{\odot}$ to $10^{-1}M_{\odot}$) in…
All transiting planets are at risk of contamination by blends with nearby, unresolved stars. Blends dilute the transit signal, causing the planet to appear smaller than it really is, or produce a false positive detection when the target…
The coalescence of the most massive black hole (MBH) binaries releases gravitational waves (GWs) within the detectable frequency range of Pulsar Timing Arrays (PTAs) $(10^{-9} - 10^{-6})$ Hz. The incoherent superposition of GWs from MBH…
Due to the finite size of the disk and the temperature fluctuations producing the variability, microlensing changes the actual time delays between images of strongly lensed AGN on the $\sim$day(s) light-crossing time scale of the emission…
Gravitational lens systems containing lensed quasars are important as cosmological probes, as diagnostics of structural properties of the lensing galaxies and as tools to study the quasars themselves. The largest lensed quasar sample is the…
A small fraction of gravitational-wave (GW) signals from binary black holes (BBHs) will be gravitationally lensed by intervening galaxies and galaxy clusters. Strong lensing will produce multiple identical copies of the GW signal arriving…
Dual and lensed quasars are valuable astrophysical targets in many aspects. Dual quasars, considered as the precursors of supermassive black hole binaries, can provide crucial insights into how black hole mergers drive the growth of…
Microlensing can be used to discover exoplanets of a wide range of masses with orbits beyond ~ 1 AU, and even free-floating planets. The WFIRST mission will use microlensing to discover approximately 1600 planets by monitoring ~100 million…
Determination of microlensing parameters in the gravitationally lensed quasar Q2237+0305 from the statistics of high magnification events will require monitoring for more than 100 years (Wambsganss, Paczynski & Schneider 1990). However we…
Weak lensing surveys are expected to provide direct measurements of the statistics of the projected dark matter distribution. Most analytical studies of weak lensing statistics have been limited to quasilinear scales as they relied on…
Weak gravitational lensing surveys are rapidly becoming important tools to probe directly the mass density fluctuations in the universe and its background dynamics. Earlier studies have shown that it is possible to model the statistics of…
Weak lensing shear estimation typically results in per galaxy statistical errors significantly larger than the sought after gravitational signal of only a few percent. These statistical errors are mostly a result of shape-noise -- an…
The gravitational microlensing method of discovering exoplanets and multi-star systems can produce degenerate solutions, some of which require in-depth analysis to uncover. We propose a new parameter space that can be used to sample…
MgII or H$\alpha$ line profile distortions observed in five gravitationally lensed quasars have been compared with simulated ones. The simulations are based on three BLR models, a Keplerian disk (KD), an equatorial wind (EW), and a polar…
The next generation of weak lensing surveys will measure the matter distribution of the local Universe with unprecedented precision, allowing the resolution of non-Gaussian features of the convergence field. This encourages the use of…
To use strong gravitational lenses as an astrophysical or cosmological probe, models of their mass distributions are often needed. We present a new, time-efficient automation code for uniform modeling of strongly lensed quasars with GLEE, a…
Modelling of the weak lensing of the CMB will be crucial to obtain correct cosmological parameter constraints from forthcoming precision CMB anisotropy observations. The lensing affects the power spectrum as well as inducing…