Related papers: Ambiguities in gravitational lens models: the dens…
We investigate the possibility of determining the mass distribution of a gravitational lens via lensing observations. We consider an extended, compact gravitational lens, representing its static external gravitational potential via an…
We simulate the effects of gravitational lensing on the source count of high redshift galaxies as projected to be observed by the Hubble Frontier Fields program and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) in the near future. Taking the mass…
Strong gravitational lens systems with measured time delays between the multiple images provide a method for measuring the "time-delay distance" to the lens, and thus the Hubble constant. We present a Bayesian analysis of the strong…
Strong gravitational lensing observations can provide extremely valuable information on the structure of galaxies, but their interpretation is made difficult by selection effects, which, if not accounted for, introduce a bias between the…
Gravitational lensing is an important prediction of general relativity, providing both its test and a tool to detect faint but amplified sources and to measure masses of lenses. For some applications (e.g. testing the theory), a point…
An attempt to measure the Hubble constant with gravitational lens time delays is often limited by the strong degeneracy between radial mass profiles of lens galaxies and the Hubble constant. We show that strong gravitational lensing of type…
We seek to find a shapelet-based scheme for deconvolving galaxy images from the PSF which leads to unbiased shear measurements. Based on the analytic formulation of convolution in shapelet space, we construct a procedure to recover the…
For 18 well-observed gravitationally lensed QSOs, we compare new non-parametric mass profiles for the lensing galaxies with stellar-population models derived from published HST photometry. The large volume of parameter space searched --…
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…
We demonstrate that the location of a stable photon sphere (PS) in a compact object is not always an edge such as the inner boundary of a black hole shadow, whereas the location of an unstable PS is known to be the shadow edge notably in…
We introduce a unified approach that, given a strong gravitationally lensed polarised source, self-consistently infers its complex surface brightness distribution and the lens galaxy mass-density profile, magnetic field and electron density…
The core mass of galaxy clusters is both an important anchor of the radial mass distribution profile and probe of structure formation. With thousands of strong lensing galaxy clusters being discovered by current and upcoming surveys,…
Microlensing events provide a unique way to detect and measure the masses of isolated, non-luminous objects, particularly dark stellar remnants. Under certain conditions, it is possible to measure the mass of these objects using photometry…
Context. Strong lensing mass measurements require the knowledge of the redshift of both the lens and the source galaxy. Traditionally, spectroscopic redshifts are used for this purpose. Upcoming surveys, however, will lead to the discovery…
(Abridged) We perform a detailed analysis of the optical gravitational lens ER 0047-2808 imaged with WFPC2 on the Hubble Space Telescope. Using software specifically designed for the analysis of resolved gravitational lens systems, we focus…
Weak lensing is one of the best available diagnostic tools to measure the total density profiles of distant clusters of galaxies. Unfortunately, it suffers from the well-known mass-sheet degeneracy, so that weak lensing analyses cannot lead…
In strong gravitational lens systems, the light bending is usually dominated by one main galaxy, but may be affected by other mass along the line of sight (LOS). Shear and convergence can be used to approximate the contributions from less…
We examine a gravitational lens model inspired by modified gravity theories and exotic matter and energy. We study an asymptotically flat, static, and spherically symmetric spacetime that is modified in such a way that the spacetime metric…
(Shortened) The combination of lensing and stellar dynamics breaks the mass-anisotropy degeneracy and provides stringent constraints on the mass distribution in early-type (E/S0) galaxies out to z~1. We present the combined results from the…
We study gravitational lensing when plasma surrounds the lens. An extra deflection angle is induced by the plasma in addition to the deflection generated by gravity. An inhomogeneous plasma distribution generates a greater effect than a…