Related papers: Superluminous quasars and mesolensing
Most gravitational lens galaxies are early-type galaxies in relatively low density environments. We show that they lie on the same fundamental plane as early-type galaxies in both local and distant rich clusters. Their surface brightness…
Although controversial, the scenario of microlensing as the dominant mechanism for the long-term optical variability of quasars does provide a natural explanation for both the statistical symmetry, achromaticity and lack of cosmological…
One of the possible explanations for dark matter is that of compact dark objects of baryonic origin, such as black holes or even planets. Accumulating evidence, including the discovery of merging stellar mass black holes through…
Recent observations show a population of active galaxies with milliarcseconds offsets between optical and radio emission. Such offsets can be an indication of extreme phenomena associated with supermassive black holes including relativistic…
A galaxy can act as a gravitational lens, producing multiple images of a background object. Theory predicts there should be an odd number of images but, paradoxically, almost all observed lenses have 2 or 4 images. The missing image should…
Gravitational lensing of background compact objects like active galactic nuclei and quasars, by extended intermediate mass lenses such as globular clusters and and dark matter clumps with masses 10^5 - 10^8 M_sun, is considered. It is shown…
Recently, it was suggested that large concentrations or groups of quasars may trace sites of enhanced matter density at medium and high redshifts analogous to how galaxy clusters trace them in nearby space. We have checked existing quasar…
We investigate the high-redshift quasar luminosity function (QLF) down to an apparent magnitude of I(AB) = 25 in the Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS). Careful analysis of the extensive COSMOS photometry and imaging data allows us to…
Aims: The knowledge of the redshift of a lensing galaxy that produces multiple images of a background quasar is essential to any subsequent modeling, whether related to the determination of the Hubble constant H_0 or to the mass profile of…
Gravitational microlensing is a powerful tool for probing the physical properties of quasar accretion disks and properties of the lens galaxy such as its dark matter fraction and mean stellar mass. Unfortunately the number of lensed quasars…
We present the discovery and preliminary characterization of a gravitationally lensed quasar with a source redshift $z_{s}=2.74$ and image separation of $2.9"$ lensed by a foreground $z_{l}=0.40$ elliptical galaxy. Since the images of…
Gravitational lensing by a spiral galaxy occurs when the line-of-sight to a background quasar passes within a few kpc from the center of the galactic disk. Since galactic disks are rich in neutral hydrogen, the quasar spectrum will likely…
Variability in gravitationally lensed quasars can be due to intrinsic fluctuations of the quasar or due to ``microlensing'' by compact objects along the line of sight. If disentangled from each other, microlens-induced variability can be…
The observed number counts of high-redshift galaxy candidates have been used to build up a statistical description of star-forming activity at redshift z >~ 7, when galaxies reionized the Universe. Standard models predict that a high…
Strong upper limits are placed on the visual-band brightnesses of galactic hosts for four luminous, radio-quiet quasars with redshifts between $0.16$ and~$0.24$ that were studied with the HST's Wide Field/Planetary Camera-2. Typical upper…
Cadenced optical imaging surveys in the next decade will be capable of detecting time-varying galaxy-scale strong gravitational lenses in large numbers, increasing the size of the statistically well-defined samples of multiply-imaged…
We try to explain quasar-galaxy associations by gravitational lensing by globular clusters, located in the halos of foreground galaxies. We propose observational test for verification of this hypothesis. We processed SUPERCOSMOS sky survey…
We place a limit on the logarithmic slope of the luminous quasar luminosity function at z~6 of beta>-3.0 (90%) using gravitational lensing constraints to build on the limit of beta>-3.3 (90%) derived from an analysis of the luminosity…
Microlensing studies of quasars can reveal dark matter lumps over a broad mass spectrum; we highlight the importance of monitoring quasars which are seen through the halos of low-redshift galaxies. For these configurations microlensing by…
Strong lensing gravitational time delays are a powerful and cost effective probe of dark energy. Recent studies have shown that a single lens can provide a distance measurement with 6-7 % accuracy (including random and systematic…