Related papers: Dark matter under the microscope: Constraining com…
We examine a caustic-straddling arc at $z=0.9397$ in the field of the galaxy cluster MACS J0416.1-2403 ($z=0.397$) using archival multiband HST images and show that its surface brightness exhibits anomalies that can be explained by a single…
Stringent observational constraints on the sub-galactic matter power spectrum would allow one to distinguish between the concordance $\Lambda$CDM and the various alternative dark-matter models that predict significantly different properties…
The aim of this paper is to provide a plausible explanation for the large amplitude microlensing events observed in the cluster lensed quasar system SDSS J1004+4112. The microlensed quasar images appear to lie well clear of the stellar…
Images from the next generation of telescopes will enable strikingly detailed reconstruction of the dark matter distributions in galaxy cluster cores using strong gravitational lensing analysis. This will provide a key test of Lambda-CDM…
Experiments are looking for diffuse brown dwarfs in the dark galactic halo through the gravitational lens effect. If brown dwarfs are clumped in dark clusters, the event rate is not changed, but events are spatially clustered, and stars…
Highly magnified stars ($\mu$ $>$ 100) are now outinely identified as transient events at cosmological distances thanks to microlensing by intra-cluster stars near the critical curves of galaxy clusters. Using the {\it James Webb} Space…
We consider small-scale spheroidal clusters of weakly interacting massive particles in our Galaxy as non-compact gravitational microlenses and predict the appearance of caustics in the plane of a lensed source. The crossing of these…
The clustering of matter on cosmological scales is an essential probe for studying the physical origin and composition of our Universe. To date, most of the direct studies have focused on shear-shear weak lensing correlations, but it is…
Gas in the interstellar matter is generally organized in filamentary structures, which may be also relevant for a complementary explanation of the dark matter in the Galactic halo. We examine the possibility that such structures may act as…
Theories of structure formation in a cold dark matter dominated Universe predict that massive clusters of galaxies assemble from the hierarchical merging of lower mass subhalos. Exploiting strong and weak gravitational lensing signals…
Dark matter may be in the form of non-baryonic structures such as compact subhalos and boson stars. Structures weighing between asteroid and solar masses may be discovered via gravitational microlensing, an astronomical probe that has in…
Microlensing observations have now become a useful tool in searching for non--luminous astrophysical compact objects (brown dwarfs, faint stars, neutron stars, black holes and even planets). Originally conceived for establishing whether the…
Foundations of standard theory of microlensing are described, namely we consider microlensing stars in Galactic bulge, the Magellanic Clouds or other nearby galaxies. We suppose that gravitational microlenses lie between an Earth observer…
Microlensing has established itself as a powerful new method for the detection of baryonic dark matter in the Galaxy. The theory of microlensing is sketched and its similarity with the optical effect of twinkling is explained. The bulk of…
Cosmological observations precisely measure primordial variations in the density of the Universe at megaparsec and larger scales, but much smaller scales remain poorly constrained. However, sufficiently large initial perturbations at small…
It has been shown by Paczy\'nski that gravitational microlensing is potentially a useful method for detecting the dark constituents of the halo of our galaxy, if their mass lies in the approximate domain $10^{-6} < M/M_{\odot} < 10^{-1}$.…
Foundations of standard theory of microlensing are described, namely we consider microlensing stars in Galactic bulge, the Magellanic Clouds or other nearby galaxies. We suppose that gravitational microlenses lie between an Earth observer…
We present a weak lensing mass reconstruction of the interacting cluster 1E0657-558 in which we detect both the main cluster and a sub-cluster. The sub-cluster is identified as a smaller cluster which has just undergone initial in-fall and…
The gravitational lensing of faint background galaxies by rich clusters is emerging as a very efficient method to constrain both the mass distribution of cluster of galaxies and probe the statistical properties of faint background galaxies.…
Microlensing observations toward globular clusters could be very useful to probe their low mass star and brown dwarf content. Using the large set of microlensing events detected so far toward the Galactic centre we investigated whether for…