Related papers: Testing the Equivalence Principle with Strong Lens…
(abridged) Gravitationally lensed quasars can be used as powerful cosmological and astrophysical probes. We can (i) infer the Hubble constant based on the time-delay technique, (ii) unveil substructures along the l.o.s. toward distant…
In this paper, we assemble a well-defined sample of early-type gravitational lenses extracted from a large collection of 158 systems, and use the redshift distribution of galactic-scale lenses to test the standard cosmological model…
LISA might detect gravitational waves from mergers of massive black hole binaries strongly lensed by intervening galaxies (Sereno et al. 2010). The detection of multiple gravitational lensing events would provide a new tool for cosmography.…
As there is a long-standing controversy over the time delay between the two images of the gravitationally lensed quasar FBQ 0951+2635, we combined early and new optical light curves to robustly measure a delay of 13.5 +/- 1.6 d (1sigma…
Gravitational lens time delays depend on the Hubble constant, the observed image positions, and the surface mass density of the lens in the annulus between the images. Simple time delay lenses like PG1115+080, SBS1520+530, B1600+434,…
The potential of gravitational lenses for providing direct, physical measurements of the Hubble constant, free from systematic errors associated with the traditional distance ladder, has long been recognized. However, it is only recently…
Using the linear theory of perturbations in General Relativity, we express a set of consistency relations that can be observationally tested with current and future large scale structure surveys. We then outline a stringent…
Testing the distance-sum-rule in strong lensing systems provides an interesting method to determine the curvature parameter $\Omega_k$ using more local objects. In this paper, we apply this method to a quite recent data set of strong…
Strongly lensed variable quasars can serve as precise cosmological probes, provided that time delays between the image fluxes can be accurately measured. A number of methods have been proposed to address this problem. In this paper, we…
Gravitational lensing of very high energy photons has recently been observed in the JVAS B0218+357 strong lensing system. This observation opens the possibility of performing a test of gravity at high energy by comparing the difference in…
Modifications to GR generically predict time and scale-dependent effects which may be probed by observations of strong lensing by galaxies. Measurements of the stellar velocity dispersion determine the dynamical mass whereas measurements of…
We study gravitational lens time delays for a general family of lensing potentials, which includes the popular singular isothermal elliptical potential and singular isothermal elliptical density distribution but allows general angular…
Strong gravitational lensing of variable sources, such as quasars or supernovae, can be used to constrain cosmological parameters through a technique known as "time-delay cosmography''. Competitive constraints on the Hubble constant have…
We consider the possibility that future wide-field time-domain optical imaging surveys may be able to discover gravitationally lensed quasar pairs through serendipitous measurements of their time delays. We discuss the merits such a…
The equivalence principle, that is one of the main pillars of general relativity, is very well tested in the Solar system; however, its validity is more uncertain on cosmological scales, or when dark matter is concerned. This article shows…
Accelerating expansion of the Universe is a great challenge for both physics and cosmology. In light of lacking the convincing theoretical explanation, an effective description of this phenomenon in terms of cosmic equation of state turns…
We present a detailed strong lensing analysis of an HST/ACS legacy dataset for the first gravitational lens, Q0957+561. With deep imaging we identify 24 new strongly lensed features, which we use to constrain mass models. We model the…
We examine the ability of gravitational lens time delays to reveal complex structure in lens potentials. In Congdon, Keeton & Nordgren (2008), we predicted how the time delay between the bright pair of images in a "fold" lens scales with…
We present a novel, purely geometric probe of cosmology based on measurements of differential time delays between images of strongly lensed quasars due to finite source effects. Our approach is solely dependent on cosmology via a ratio of…
The cold dark matter scenario of hierarchical large-scale structure formation predicts the existence of abundant subhalos around large galaxies. However, the number of observed dwarf galaxies is far from this theoretical prediction,…