Related papers: Asymmetric Surface Brightness Structure of Caustic…
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…
The recent discovery of fast transient events near critical curves of massive galaxy clusters, which are interpreted as highly magnified individual stars in giant arcs due to caustic crossing, opens up the possibility of using such…
A galaxy cluster acts as a cosmic telescope over background galaxies but also as a cosmic microscope of the lens imperfections. The diverging magnification of lensing caustics enhances the microlensing effect of substructure present within…
Recent observations of lensed galaxies at cosmological distances have detected individual stars that are extremely magnified when crossing the caustics of lensing clusters. In idealized cluster lenses with smooth mass distributions, two…
Luminous stars in background galaxies straddling the lensing caustic of a foreground galaxy cluster can be individually detected due to extreme magnification factors of $\sim 10^2$--$10^3$, as recently observed in deep HST images. We…
We present Hubble Space Telescope (HST) ACS and WFC3 observations of SDSS J1029+2623, a three-image quasar lens system produced by a foreground cluster at z=0.584. Our strong lensing analysis reveals 6 additional multiply imaged galaxies.…
We present results of a strong-lensing analysis of MACS J0717.5+3745 (hereafter MACS J0717), an extremely X-ray luminous galaxy cluster at z=0.55. Observations at different wavelengths reveal a complex and dynamically very active cluster,…
We present a new lens model for the $z=0.396$ galaxy cluster MACS J0416.1$-$2403 based on a previously known set of 77 spectroscopically confirmed, multiply imaged galaxies plus an additional set of 42 candidate multiply imaged galaxies…
We present results of a gravitational-lensing and optical study of MACS ,J1423.8+2404 (z=0.545, MACS, J1423). Our analysis uses high-resolution images taken with the Hubble Space Telescope in the F555W and F814W passbands, ground based…
We study light variability of gravitationally magnified high-redshift star clusters induced by a foreground population of microlenses. This arises as the incoherent superposition of light variations from a large number of source stars…
Large magnification factors near gravitational lensing caustics of galaxy cluster lenses allow the study of individual stars or compact stellar associations at cosmological distances. We study how the presence of sub-galactic subhalos, an…
We investigate the region around the Planck-detected z=3.26 gravitationally lensed galaxy HATLAS J114637.9-001132 (hereinafter HATLAS12-00) using both archival Herschel data from the H-ATLAS survey and using submm data obtained with both…
Microlensed stars recently discovered by JWST & HST follow closely the winding critical curve of A370 along all sections of the ``Dragon Arc" traversed by the critical curve. These transients are fainter than $m_{AB}>26.5$, corresponding to…
We discuss the X-ray and optical properties of the massive galaxy cluster MACSJ1206.2-0847 (z=0.4385), discovered in the Massive Cluster Survey (MACS). Our Chandra observation of the system yields a total X-ray luminosity of 2.4 x 10^45…
Highly magnified lensed galaxies allow us to probe the morphological and spectroscopic properties of high-redshift stellar systems in great detail. However, such objects are rare, and there are only a handful of lensed galaxies which are…
We report the discovery of two strongly-lensed z ~ 3 Lyman Break Galaxies (LBGs) discovered as u-band dropouts as part of the SDSS Giant Arcs Survey (SGAS). The first, SGAS J122651.3+215220 at z = 2.9233 is lensed by one of several…
We present a new strong lensing analysis of the galaxy cluster MACS J1206.2-0847 (MACS 1206), at z=0.44, using deep spectroscopy from CLASH-VLT and VLT/MUSE archival data in combination with imaging from the Cluster Lensing and Supernova…
We report Keck LRIS observations of an arc-like background galaxy near the center of Abell 2152 (z=0.043), one of the three clusters comprising the Hercules supercluster. The background object has a redshift z=0.1423 and is situated 25…
SDSS J2222+2745, at z = 0.489, is one of the few currently known lens clusters with multiple images of a background (z = 2.801) quasar with measured time delays. We combine imaging from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) with recent Multi…
Gravitational lensing is the phenomenon arising when light rays are deflected by the mass between the source and the observer. Largely magnified and highly distorted images of background galaxies are formed by these angular deflections if…