Related papers: Strong gravitational lensing's 'external shear' is…
Strong lensing by massive galaxies probes their mass distribution, thus providing a window to study their internal structure, i.e., the distributions of luminous and dark matter. In this paper, we investigate the relation between the…
We use publicly available N-body simulations and semi-analytic models of galaxy formation to estimate the levels of external shear due to structure near the lens in gravitational lens systems. We also describe two selection effects,…
In this paper, we study gravitational lensing by groups of galaxies. Since groups are abundant and therefore have a large covering fraction on the sky, lensing by groups is likely to be very important observationally. Besides, it has…
The elliptical power-law (EPL) model of the mass in a galaxy is widely used in strong gravitational lensing analyses. However, the distribution of mass in real galaxies is more complex. We quantify the biases due to this model mismatch by…
Galaxies modeled as singular isothermal ellipsoids with an axis ratio distribution similar to the observed axis ratio distribution of E and S0 galaxies are statistically consistent with both the observed numbers of two-image and four-image…
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…
Galaxy lenses are frequently modeled as an elliptical mass distribution with external shear and isothermal spheres to account for secondary and line-of-sight galaxies. There is statistical evidence that some fraction of observed quads are…
We study a general elliptical potential of the form $\psi(x^2+y^2/q^2)~ (0<q\le 1)$ plus an additional shear (with an arbitrary direction) as models for the observed quadruple lenses. It is shown that a minimum additional shear is needed…
Strong gravitational lensing provides an independent measurement of the Hubble parameter ($H_0$). One remaining systematic is a bias from the additional mass due to a galaxy group at the lens redshift or along the sightline. We quantify…
Strong gravitational lensing images are subject to shape distortions due to inhomogeneities along the line of sight. The leading order shape distortion is shear, which, if measurable, will be a complementary cosmological probe to…
We investigate how strong gravitational lensing can test contemporary models of massive elliptical (ME) galaxy formation, by combining a traditional decomposition of their visible stellar distribution with a lensing analysis of their mass…
Context. Strong lenses are a biased subset of the general population of galaxies. Aims. The goal of this work is to quantify how lens galaxies and lensed sources differ from their parent distribution, namely the strong lensing bias.…
The time delay in gravitational lenses can be used to derive the Hubble constant in a relatively simple way. The results of this method are less dependent on astrophysical assumptions than in many other methods. The most important…
We discuss strong gravitational lensing by multiple objects along any line of sight. The probability for strong gravitational lensing by more than one lens is small, but a number of strong lens systems in which more than one separate lens…
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…
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…
Weak gravitational lensing has proven to be a powerful tool to map directly the distribution of dark matter in the Universe. The technique, currently used, relies on the accurate measurement of the gravitational shear that corresponds to…
Weak lensing is commonly measured using shear through galaxy ellipticities, or using the effect of magnification bias on galaxy number densities. Here, we report on the first detection of weak lensing magnification with a new, independent…
The analysis of strong lensing images usually involves an external convergence and shear, which are meant to model the effect of perturbations along the line of sight, on top of the main lens. Such a description of line-of-sight…
Weak lensing can be observed through a number of effects on the images of distant galaxies; their shapes are sheared, their sizes and fluxes (magnitudes) are magnified and their positions on the sky are modified by the lensing field. Galaxy…