Related papers: Using Strong Gravitational Lensing to Identify Fos…
Fossil groups are expected to be the final product of galaxy merging within galaxy groups. In simulations, they are predicted to assemble their mass at high redshift. This early formation allows for the innermost $M^\ast$ galaxies to merge…
We predict how the observed variations in galaxy populations with environment affect the number and properties of gravitational lenses in different environments. Two trends dominate: lensing strongly favors early-type galaxies, which tend…
Using the semi-analytic models based on the Millennium simulation, we trace back the evolution of the luminosity function of galaxies residing in progenitors of groups classified by the magnitude gap at redshift zero. We determine the…
We present an estimation of the expected number of arcs and arclets in a sample of nearby (z<0.1) clusters of galaxies, that takes into account the magnitude limit of the objects as well as seeing effects. We show that strong lensing…
Context. Strong lenses are a biased subset of the general population of galaxies. Aims. The goal of this work is to quantify how lens galaxies and lensed sources differ from their parent distribution, namely the strong lensing bias.…
Strong gravitational lenses come in many forms, but are typically divided into two populations: galaxies, and groups and clusters of galaxies. The largest objects in the Universe (i.e. galaxy clusters) are highly irregular and composed of…
Strong gravitational lensing provides unique opportunities to investigate the mass distribution at the cores of galaxy clusters and to study high redshift galaxies. Using $94$ strong lensing models of $74$ cluster fields from the…
We study the correlation between the locations of galaxy-galaxy strong lensing candidates and tracers of large-scale structure from both weak lensing or X-ray emission. The COSMOS survey is a unique data set, combining deep, high resolution…
We use SDSS-DR4 photometric and spectroscopic data out to redshift z~0.1 combined with ROSAT All Sky Survey X-ray data to produce a sample of twenty-five fossil groups (FGs), defined as bound systems dominated by a single, luminous…
We present results from a systematic search for strong gravitational lenses in the GOODS ACS data. The search technique involves creating a sample of likely lensing galaxies, which we define as massive early-type galaxies in a redshift…
Clusters of galaxies as gravitational lenses allow to study the stellar content and properties of high-z galaxies much fainter than the usual spectroscopic field surveys. We review the recent results obtained on the identification and study…
We report the serendipitous discovery of two strong gravitational lens candidates (ACS J160919+6532 and ACS J160910+6532) in deep images obtained with the Advanced Camera for Surveys on the Hubble Space Telescope, each less than 40 arcsec…
Large scale imaging surveys will increase the number of galaxy-scale strong lensing candidates by maybe three orders of magnitudes beyond the number known today. Finding these rare objects will require picking them out of at least tens of…
We present VLT spectroscopic observations of 7 discovered galaxy groups between 0.3<z<0.7. The groups were selected from the Strong Lensing Legacy Survey (SL2S), a survey that consists in a systematic search for strong lensing systems in…
We present the first catalog of 67 strong galaxy-galaxy lens candidates discovered in the 1.64 square degree Hubble Space Telescope COSMOS survey. Twenty of these systems display multiple images or strongly curved large arcs. Our initial…
This paper presents both the result of a search for fossil systems (FSs) within the XMM Cluster Survey and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the results of a study of the stellar mass assembly and stellar populations of their fossil…
Most gravitational lenses are early-type galaxies in relatively low density environments -- a ``field'' rather than a ``cluster'' population. We show that field early-type galaxies with 0 < z < 1, as represented by the lens galaxies, lie on…
The identification and study of the first galaxies remains one of the most exciting topics in observational cosmology. The determination of the best possible observing strategies is a very important choice in order to build up a…
Like light, gravitational waves can be gravitationally lensed by massive astrophysical objects. Strong gravitational lensing by galaxies and galaxy clusters is anticipated to become observable in the coming years. This phenomenon will…
With a large, unique spectroscopic survey in the fields of 28 galaxy-scale strong gravitational lenses, we identify groups of galaxies in the 26 adequately-sampled fields. Using a group finding algorithm, we find 210 groups with at least…