Related papers: Cosmological Tests With Strong Gravitational Lense…
Modern applications of strong gravitational lensing require the ability to use precise and varied observational data to constrain complex lens models. I discuss two sets of computational methods for lensing calculations. The first is a new…
The cosmic distance duality relation (DDR), which links the angular diameter distance and the luminosity distance, is a cornerstone in modern cosmology. Any deviation from DDR may indicate new physics beyond the standard cosmological model.…
We show how the combination of observations related to strong gravitational lensing and stellar dynamics in ellipticals offers a new way to measure the cosmological matter and dark-energy density parameters. A gravitational lensing estimate…
It has been known for over three decades that the monochromatic X-ray and UV luminosities in quasars are correlated, though non-linearly. This offers the possibility of using high-z quasars as standard candles for cosmological testing. In…
Constraining the distribution of small-scale structure in our universe allows us to probe alternatives to the cold dark matter paradigm. Strong gravitational lensing offers a unique window into small dark matter halos ($<10^{10} M_\odot$)…
Gravitational lensing is the deflection of light rays due to the gravity of intervening masses. This phenomenon is observed in a variety of scales and configurations, involving any non-uniform mass such as planets, stars, galaxies, clusters…
We devise a test of nonlinear departures from general relativity (GR) using time delays in strong gravitational lenses. We use a phenomenological model of gravitational screening as a step discontinuity in the measure of curvature per unit…
We use a new non-parametric gravitational modelling tool -- \Glass{} -- to determine what quality of data (strong lensing, stellar kinematics, and/or stellar masses) are required to measure the circularly averaged mass profile of a lens and…
We re-analyze constraints on the cosmological constant that can be obtained by examining the statistics of strong gravitational lensing of distant quasars by intervening galaxies, focusing on uncertainties in galaxy models (including…
Strong gravitational lenses with two background sources at widely separated redshifts are a powerful and independent probe of cosmological parameters. We can use these systems, known as Double-Source-Plane Lenses (DSPLs), to measure the…
Disc galaxies represent a promising laboratory for the study of gravitational physics, including alternatives to dark matter, owing to the possibility of coupling rotation curves' dynamical data with strong gravitational lensing…
The fraction of high-redshift sources which are multiply-imaged by intervening galaxies is strongly dependent on the cosmological constant, and so can be a useful probe of the cosmological model. However its power is limited by various…
Bright galaxy-galaxy strong lenses are much more powerful than lensed quasars for measuring the mass profiles of galaxies, but until this year only a handful have been known. Here we present five new examples, identified via the optimal…
High-precision cosmological probes have revealed a small but significant tension between the parameters measured with different techniques, among which there is one based on time delays in gravitational lenses. We discuss a new way of using…
The centres of galaxies are powerful laboratories to test the current $\Lambda$CDM model for structure formation and evolution. While these sub-galactic scales can be directly investigated in the local Universe, it is observationally…
In this letter, we propose an improved cosmological model-independent method to measure cosmic curvature, combining the recent measurements of transverse and line-of-sight directions in the baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) with cosmic…
We use weak gravitational lensing to measure mean mass profiles around Locally Brightest Galaxies (LBGs). These are selected from the SDSS/DR7 spectroscopic and photometric catalogues to be brighter than any neighbour projected within 1.0…
Gravitational time delays, observed in strong lens systems where the variable background source is multiply-imaged by a massive galaxy in the foreground, provide direct measurements of cosmological distance that are very complementary to…
Whereas considerable effort has been afforded in understanding the properties of galaxies, a full physical picture, connecting their baryonic and dark-matter content, super-massive black holes, and (metric) theories of gravity, is still…
To use strong gravitational lenses as an astrophysical or cosmological probe, models of their mass distributions are often needed. We present a new, time-efficient automation code for uniform modeling of strongly lensed quasars with GLEE, a…