Related papers: Statistical Microlensing Toward Magnified High-Red…
The combination of deep exposures and high resolution offered by telescopes in space allows the detection of lensing over a wide range of source redshifts and lens masses. As an example, we model a lens candidate found in the southern…
Magnification bias, an observational effect of gravitational lensing in the weak regime, allows testing the cosmological model through angular correlations of sources at different redshifts. This effect has been observed in various…
We developed an algorithm to find and characterize gravitationally lensed galaxies (arcs) to perform a comparison of the observed and simulated arc abundance. Observations are from the Cluster Lensing And Supernova survey with Hubble…
We compare the statistical properties of giant gravitationally lensed arcs produced in matched simulated and observed cluster samples. The observed sample consists of 10 X-ray selected clusters at redshifts z ~ 0.2 imaged with HST by Smith…
The effect of stars on the lensing properties of the supermassive black hole in the Galactic Center is similar to the effect of planets on microlensing by a star. We show that the dense stellar cluster around SgrA* increases by factors of a…
The magnification effect of gravitational lensing is a powerful probe of the distribution of matter in the universe, yet it is frequently overlooked due to the fact that its signal to noise is smaller than that of lensing shear. Because its…
Recent high-resolution observations with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) reveal that star clusters of extraordinary luminosity and compactness are commonly found in a variety of starburst systems. There has been much speculation that these…
We discuss a method to build up and study a sample of distant galaxies, with 2<z<5, using the gravitational amplification effect in cluster-lenses for which the mass distribution is well known. The candidates are selected close to the…
We present a new sample of strong gravitational lens systems where both the foreground lenses and background sources are early-type galaxies. Using imaging from HST/ACS and Keck/NIRC2, we model the surface brightness distributions and show…
The formation environment of stars in massive stellar clusters is similar to the environment of stars forming in galaxies at a redshift of 1 - 3, at the peak star formation rate density of the Universe. As massive clusters are still forming…
Supermagnified stars are gravitationally lensed individual stars that are located close to a caustic of a lensing galaxy cluster, and have their flux magnified by a large enough factor (typically ~ 1000) to make them detectable with present…
The statistics of strongly lensed arcs in samples of galaxy clusters provide information on cluster structure that is complementary to that from individual clusters. However, samples of clusters that have been analyzed to date have been…
The frequency of giant arcs - highly distorted and strongly gravitationally lensed background galaxies - is a powerful test for cosmological models. Previous comparisons of arc statistics for the currently favored concordance cosmological…
Gravitational microlensing of planetary-mass objects (or "nanolensing", as it has been termed) can be used to probe the distribution of mass in a galaxy that is acting as a gravitational lens. Microlensing and nanolensing light curve…
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…
The microlensing of background stars by compact objects in globular clusters is analyzed. The main strength of the proposed search is the direct relationship between the lens mass and the time scale of the microlensing event. The main…
We consider the effect of lensing magnification on high redshift sources in the case that magnification varies on the sky, as expected in wide fields of view or within observed galaxy clusters. We give expressions for number counts, flux…
In the past decade, our understanding of how stars and galaxies formed during the first 5 billion years after the Big Bang has been revolutionized by observations that leverage gravitational lensing by intervening masses, which act as…
The fraction of quasar's and gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglows that vary due to microlensing by the stellar populations of intervening elliptical/S0 galaxies is computed by combining the joint distribution of effective microlensing…
Gravitational microlensing provides a new technique for studying the surfaces of distant stars. Microlensing events are detected in real time and can be followed up with precision photometry and spectroscopy. This method is particularly…