Related papers: Fast computation of quadrupole and hexadecapole ap…
Microlensing has recently proven to be a valuable tool to search for extrasolar planets of Neptune- to super-Earth-mass planets at orbits of few AU. Since planetary signals are of very short duration, an intense and continuous monitoring is…
The search for exoplanets is an active field in astronomy, with direct imaging as one of the most challenging methods due to faint exoplanet signals buried within stronger residual starlight. Successful detection requires advanced image…
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…
High quality, repeatable point-spread functions are important for science cases like direct exoplanet imaging, high-precision astrometry, and high-resolution spectroscopy of exoplanets. For such demanding applications, the initial on-sky…
The shapes of galaxies can be quantified by ratios of their quadrupole moments. For faint galaxies, observational noise can make the denominator close to zero, so the ratios become ill-defined. Knowledge of these ratios (i.e. their measured…
Strong gravitational lensing provides a geometric probe of cosmology in a unique manner through distance ratios involving the source and lens. This is well known for the time delay distance derived from measured delays between lightcurves…
Accurate gravity field calculations are necessary for landing on planets, moons, asteroids, minimoons, or other irregularly shaped bodies, but current methods become increasingly inaccurate and slow near the surface. We present high…
Gravitational lensing allows us to probe the structure of matter on a broad range of astronomical scales, and as light from a distant source traverses an intervening galaxy, compact matter such as planets, stars, and black holes act as…
The demand for a large number of readout channels has been a limiting factor for the application of Micro-pattern Gaseous Detectors (MPGDs) in achieving higher spatial resolution and larger detection areas. This challenge is further…
Microlensing is a proven extrasolar planet search method that has already yielded the detection of four exoplanets. These detections have changed our understanding of planet formation ``beyond the snowline'' by demonstrating that…
Gravitational microlensing occurs when a foreground star happens to pass very close to our line of sight to a more distant background star. The foreground star acts as a lens, splitting the light from the source star into two images, which…
We introduce a novel strategy for cosmological Boltzmann codes leading to an increase in speed by a factor of \sim 30 for small scale Fourier modes. We (re-)investigate the tight coupling approximation and obtain analytic formulae reaching…
Realizing Refsdal's original idea from 1964, we present estimates of the Hubble constant that are complementary to and potentially competitive with those of other cosmological probes. We use the observed positions of 89 multiple images,…
Exoplanet research has shown an incessant growth since the first claim of a hot giant planet around a solar-like star in the mid-1990s. Today, the new facilities are working to spot the first habitable rocky planets around low-mass stars as…
High redshift sources suffer from magnification or demagnification due to weak gravitational lensing by large scale structure. One consequence of this is that the distance-redshift relation, in wide use for cosmological tests, suffers…
Microlensing of stars in strongly lensed galaxies can lead to temporary extreme magnification factors ($\mu\!>\!1000$), enabling their detection at high redshifts. Following the discovery of Icarus, several stars at cosmological distances…
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…
Hyperspectral cameras provide numerous advantages in terms of the utility of the data captured. They capture hundreds of data points per sample (pixel) instead of only the few of RGB or multispectral camera systems. Aerial systems sense…
High-resolution spectroscopy (R > 25,000) has opened new opportunities to characterize exoplanet atmospheres from the ground. By resolving individual lines in planetary emission and transmission spectra, one can sensitively probe the…
We present a novel method for direct detection and characterization of exoplanets from space. This method uses four collecting telescopes, combined with phase chopping and a spectrometer, with observations on only a few baselines rather…