Related papers: Femto-lensing due to a Cosmic String
Gravitational lensing is a powerful probe of cosmology and astrophysics. With the prospect of the first strongly lensed gravitational waves on the horizon, we highlight an opportunity to test fundamental physics. In this work, we assume a…
Recent observations suggest appreciable star formation activity in early-type galaxies down to redshift $z\sim 0.5$. If so, there is likely to be dust in these galaxies. We consider the possibility that obscuration by dust can reconcile the…
Gravitational lensing effect is one of most significant observational probes to investigate compact dark matter/objects over a wide mass range. In this work, we first propose to derive the population information and the abundance of…
Gravitational lensing is a powerful astrophysical and cosmological probe and is particularly valuable at submillimeter wavelengths for the study of the statistical and individual properties of dusty starforming galaxies. However the…
Dark matter caustics have specific density profiles and, therefore, precisely calculable gravitational lensing properties. We present a formalism which simplifies the relevant calculations, and apply it to four specific cases. In the first…
Weak gravitational lensing is one of the key probes of the cosmological model, dark energy, and dark matter, providing insight into both the cosmic expansion history and large scale structure growth history. Taking into account a broad…
Weak gravitational lensing of background galaxies offers an excellent opportunity to study the intervening distribution of matter. While much attention to date has focused on the two-point function of the cosmic shear, the three-point…
The developments summarized with the name ``weak gravitational lensing'' have led to exciting possibilities to study the (statistical properties of the) dark matter distribution in the Universe. Concentrating on those aspects which require…
Recent work suggests that fundamental and Dirichlet strings, and their (p,q) bound states, may be observed as cosmic strings. The evolution of cosmic string networks, and therefore their observational signals, depends on what happens when…
Gravitational lensing is one of a number of methods used to probe the distribution of dark mass in the Universe. On galactic scales, complementary techniques include the use of stellar kinematics, kinematics and morphology of the neutral…
Continuous gravitational waves are analogous to monochromatic light and therefore could be used to detect wave effects like interference or diffraction. This would be possible with strongly lensed gravitational waves. This article reviews…
Gravitational lensing by massive objects along the line of sight to the source causes distortions of gravitational wave-signals; such distortions may reveal information about fundamental physics, cosmology and astrophysics. In this work, we…
We investigate strong gravitational lensing in the concordance $\Lambda$CDM cosmology by carrying out ray-tracing along past light cones through the Millennium Simulation, the largest simulation of cosmic structure formation ever carried…
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…
Weak gravitational lensing, the deflection of light by mass, is one of the best tools to constrain the growth of cosmic structure with time and reveal the nature of dark energy. I discuss the sources of systematic uncertainty in weak…
It has been suggested that short gamma ray bursts (GRBs) have shorter or undetectable spectral lags than long GRB because in the former, the observer's line of sight makes a larger angle with the GRB jet axis than for the latter. It is…
More than half of the volume of our Universe is occupied by cosmic voids. The lensing magnification effect from those under-dense regions is generally thought to give a small dimming contribution: objects on the far side of a void are…
We investigate the potential of weak gravitational lensing maps to differentiate between distinct cosmological models, considering cosmic variance due to a limited map extension and the presence of noise. We introduce a measure of the…
We study the deformation of a long cosmic string by a nearby rotating black hole. We examine whether the deformation of a cosmic string, induced by the gravitational field of a Kerr black hole, may lead to the formation of a loop of cosmic…
We discuss combining gravitational lensing of galaxies and the cosmic microwave background (CMB) by clusters to measure cosmographic distance ratios, and hence dark energy parameters. Advantages to using the CMB as the second source plane,…