Related papers: A GPU-Enabled, High-Resolution Cosmological Microl…
We quantitatively assess, by means of comprehensive numerical simulations, the ability of broad-band photometric surveys to recover the broad emission line region (BLR) size in quasars under various observing conditions and for a wide range…
In this paper, we explore the astrophysical implications of near-field microlensing and its effects on stellar transit observations, with a special emphasis on the Kepler mission. Kepler is a NASA-approved mission whose goal is to detect a…
We present a joint weak lensing and X-ray analysis of 4 deg$^2$ from the CFHTLS and XMM-LSS surveys. Our weak lensing analysis is the first analysis of a real survey using shapelets, a new generation weak lensing analysis method. We create…
The statistics of gravitationally lensed quasars with multiple images in the 0.1''-7'' range have been measured in various surveys. Little is known, however, about lensed-quasar statistics at larger image separations, which probe masses on…
We infer gravitational lensing shear and convergence fields from galaxy ellipticity catalogs under a spatial process prior for the lensing potential. We demonstrate the performance of our algorithm with simulated Gaussian-distributed…
The statistics of shear peaks have been shown to provide valuable cosmological information beyond the power spectrum, and will be an important constraint of models of cosmology with the large survey areas provided by forthcoming…
We use single-epoch spectroscopy of three gravitationally lensed quasars, HE0435-1223, WFI2033-4723, and HE2149-2745, to study their inner structure (BLR and continuum source). We detect microlensing-induced magnification in the wings of…
A small fraction of all quasars are strongly lensed and multiply imaged, with usually a galaxy acting as the main lens. Some, maybe all of these quasars are also affected by microlensing, the effects of stellar mass objects in the lensing…
We present a tool to generate mock quasar microlensing light curves and sample them according to any observing strategy. An updated treatment of the fixed and random velocity components of observer, lens, and source is used, together with a…
Powered by supermassive black holes at their centers, quasars are among the most luminous objects in the Universe, serving as important probes of cosmic history and galaxy evolution. The size of the accretion disc surrounding the black hole…
Testing the standard Shakura-Sunyaev model of accretion is a challenging task because the central region of quasars where accretion takes place is unresolved with telescopes. The analysis of microlensing in gravitationally lensed quasars is…
We present a detailed exposition of a statistical method for estimating cosmological parameters from the observation of a large number of strongly lensed binary-black-hole (BBH) mergers observable by next (third) generation (XG)…
The first investigations of the response of the microlensing magnification pattern (at an optical depth of order unity) to the mass function of the microlenses found that the resulting statistics depend only on the mean microlens mass <m>.…
This work studies the relationship between accretion-disk size and quasar properties, using a sample of 95 quasars from the SDSS-RM project with measured lags between the $g$ and $i$ photometric bands. Our sample includes disk lags that are…
We use X-ray and optical microlensing measurements to study the shape of the dark matter density profile in the lens galaxies and the size of the (soft) X-ray emission region. We show that single epoch X-ray microlensing is sensitive to the…
Weak gravitational lensing is a promising probe of dark matter and dark energy requiring accurate measurement of the shapes of faint, distant galaxies. Such measures are hindered by the finite resolution and pixel scale of typical cameras.…
We present new integral field spectroscopy of the gravitationally lensed broad absorption line (BAL) quasar H1413+117, covering the ultraviolet to visible rest-frame spectral range. We observe strong microlensing signatures in lensed image…
Shear estimation bias from galaxy detection and blending identification is now recognized as an issue for ongoing and future weak lensing surveys. Currently, the empirical approach to correcting for this bias involves numerically shearing…
We present a new and very fast method for producing microlensing magnification maps at high optical depths. It is based on the combination of two approaches: (a) the two-dimensional Poisson solver for a deflection potential and (b) inverse…
Gravitational microlensing of planetary-mass objects (or "nanolensing", as it has been termed) can be used to probe the distribution of mass in a galaxy that is acting as a gravitational lens. Microlensing and nanolensing light curve…