Related papers: Multipole Gravitational Lensing and High-order Per…
It is known that the rotation of a gravitational lens affects properties of images. We consider an inverse problem: If the lens is dark, can we infer its rotation from the observed images? We find that, up to the first order in the…
(abridged) Aims: RXS J113155.4-123155 (z=0.66) is a quadruply imaged lensed quasar with a resolved Einstein Ring. The goal of this paper is to provide a full characterization of this system, and more particularly accurate astrometry and…
We investigate the gravitational lensing signatures of vorton configurations, considering the circular vorton, the Kibble-Turok vorton, and a newly proposed class that incorporates simultaneous excitations of the first, second, and third…
The precision reached by current and forthcoming strong-lensing observations requires to accurately model various perturbations to the main deflector. Hitherto, theoretical models have been developed to account for either cosmological…
In a quadruply imaged lens system the angular distribution of images around the lens center is completely described by three relative angles. We show empirically that in the 3D space of these angles, spanning 180 x 180 x 90 degrees, quads…
The two outer triangular caustics (regions of infinite magnification) of a close binary microlens move much faster than the components of the binary themselves, and can even exceed the speed of light. When $\epsilon > 1$, where $\epsilon c$…
While gravitationally lensed quasars are expected to display an odd number of images, invariably systems are observed with an even number of quasars. For this, lensing galaxies must have very small core radii; this provides strong…
In optics, mode conversion is an elegant way to switch between Hermite Gaussian and Laguerre Gaussian beam profiles and thereby impart orbital angular momentum onto the beam and to create vortices. In optics such vortex beams can be…
We develop a new approach for studying flux anomalies in quadruply-imaged fold lens systems. We show that in the absence of substructure, microlensing, or differential absorption, the expected flux ratios of a fold pair can be tightly…
Gravitational lensing by the dual cusp catastrophes of the cold dark matter (CDM) caustic rings at cosmological distances may provide the tantalizing opportunity to detect CDM indirectly, and discriminate between axions and weakly…
Flux ratio `anomalies' in quadruply-imaged gravitational lenses can be explained with galactic substructure of the sort predicted by CDM, but the strength and uniqueness of that hypothesis needs to be further assessed. A good way to do that…
Galaxies modeled as singular isothermal ellipsoids with an axis ratio distribution similar to the observed axis ratio distribution of E and S0 galaxies are statistically consistent with both the observed numbers of two-image and four-image…
We propose a new smoothing method for obtaining surface densities from discrete particle positions from numerical simulations. This is an essential step for many applications in gravitational lensing. This method is based on the ``scatter''…
We study three-dimensional microlensing where two lenses are located at different distances along the line of sight. We formulate the lens equation in complex notations and recover several previous results. There are in total either 4 or 6…
We show how observations of multiply-imaged quasars at high redshift can be used as a probe of dark matter clumps (subhalos with masses ~ 10^9 solar masses) within the virialized extent of more massive lensing halos. A large abundance of…
Recent observations show a population of active galaxies with milliarcseconds offsets between optical and radio emission. Such offsets can be an indication of extreme phenomena associated with supermassive black holes including relativistic…
We have worked out simple analytical formulae that accurately approximate the relationship between the position of the source with respect to the lens center and the amplification of the images, hence the lens cross section, for realistic…
A degeneracy in strong lens model is shown analytically. The observed time delays and quasar image positions might {\it not} uniquely determine the concentration and the extent of the lens galaxy halo mass distribution. Simply hardwiring…
The mathematical theory of gravitational lensing has revealed many generic and global properties. Beginning with multiple imaging, we review Morse-theoretic image counting formulas and lower bound results, and complex-algebraic upper bounds…
Modeling the mass distribution of galaxy-scale strong gravitational lenses is a task of increasing difficulty. The high-resolution and depth of imaging data now available render simple analytical forms ineffective at capturing lens…