Related papers: Recovering the mass distribution of an extended gr…
We study gravitational lensing by a generic extended mass distribution. For that, we consider the diffraction of electromagnetic (EM) waves by an extended, weakly aspherical, gravitating object. We account for the static gravitational field…
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 have previously reported the discovery of strong gravitational lensing by faint elliptical galaxies using the WFPC2 on HST and here we investigate their potential usefulness in putting constraints on lens mass models. We compare various…
Strong gravitational lensing gives access to the total mass distribution of galaxies. It can unveil a great deal of information about the lenses dark matter content when combined with the study of the lenses light profile. However,…
Many distant objects can only be detected, or become more scientifically valuable, if they have been highly magnified by strong gravitational lensing. We use EAGLE and BAHAMAS, two recent cosmological hydrodynamical simulations, to predict…
We continue our investigation of the optical properties of the solar gravitational lens (SGL). We treat the Sun as an extended axisymmetric body and model its gravitational field using zonal harmonics. We consider a point source that is…
We explore interstellar light transmission facilitated by gravitational lensing, focusing on axially-symmetric lensing configurations where the transmitter, lens, and receiver are nearly aligned. Positioning an optical transmitter in the…
Gravitational lensing directly measures mass density fluctuations along the lines of sight to very distant objects. No assumptions need to be made concerning bias, the ratio of fluctuations in galaxy density to mass density. Hence, lensing…
We investigate imaging point sources with a monopole gravitational lens, such as the Solar Gravitational Lens in the geometric optics limit. We compute the light amplification of the lens used in conjunction with a telescope featuring a…
Strong lensing has developed into an important astrophysical tool for probing both cosmology and galaxies (their structure, formation, and evolution). Using the gravitational lensing theory and cluster mass distribution model, we try to…
Strong gravitational lensing is a powerful technique for probing galaxy mass distributions and for measuring cosmological parameters. We present a pixelated approach to modeling simultaneously the lens potential and source intensity of…
Measured time delays between the images of a gravitationally lensed source can lead to a determination of the Hubble constant ($H_o$), but only if the lensing mass distribution is well understood. The inability to sufficiently constrain…
Gravitational Lensing is an efficient tool to probe: the mass distribution of collapsed systems: galaxies and clusters; high redshift objects thanks to the gravitational amplification; and the geometry of the Universe. I will review here…
Mass clumps in gravitational lens galaxies can perturb lensed images in characteristic ways. Strong lens flux ratios have been used to constrain the amount of dark matter substructure in lens galaxies, and various other observables have…
We use comparisons between the shapes of gravitational lens galaxies and models for their mass distributions to derive statistical constraints on the alignment of the mass distribution relative to the observed lens galaxy and on the…
The density of stars and MACHOs in the universe could theoretically be determined or limited by simultaneous measurements of compact sources by well separated observers. A gravitational lens effect would be expected to create a slight…
The four observables associated with gravitational lensing of distant quasars by intervening galaxies: image splittings, relative amplifications, time delays, and optical depths, provide separate measures of the strength of the…
We have worked out simple analytical formulae that accurately approximate the relationship between the position of the source with respect to the lens center and the amplification of the images, hence the lens cross section, for realistic…
After exactly a century since the formulation of the general theory of relativity, the phenomenon of gravitational lensing is still an extremely powerful method for investigating in astrophysics and cosmology. Indeed, it is adopted to study…
Gravitational lensing has become one of the most interesting tools to study the mass distribution in the Universe. Since gravitational light deflection is independent of the nature and state of the matter, it is ideally suited to…