Related papers: A compact group lens modeled with GIGA-Lens: Enhan…
Quantifying image distortions caused by strong gravitational lensing and estimating the corresponding matter distribution in lensing galaxies has been primarily performed by maximum likelihood modeling of observations. This is typically a…
When light from a distant source object, like a galaxy or a supernova, travels towards us, it is deflected by massive objects that lie on its path. When the mass density of the deflecting object exceeds a certain threshold, multiple, highly…
Spectroscopic selection has been the most productive technique for the selection of galaxy-scale strong gravitational lens systems with known redshifts. Statistically significant samples of strong lenses provide a powerful method for…
Finding strong gravitational lenses in astronomical images allows us to assess cosmological theories and understand the large-scale structure of the universe. Previous works on lens detection do not quantify uncertainties in lens parameter…
Modeling the mass distribution of galaxy-scale strong gravitational lenses is a task of increasing difficulty. The high-resolution and depth of imaging data now available render simple analytical forms ineffective at capturing lens…
Modern applications of strong gravitational lensing require the ability to use precise and varied observational data to constrain complex lens models. I discuss two sets of computational methods for lensing calculations. The first is a new…
We report the serendipitous discovery of two strong gravitational lens candidates (ACS J160919+6532 and ACS J160910+6532) in deep images obtained with the Advanced Camera for Surveys on the Hubble Space Telescope, each less than 40 arcsec…
Gravitational lens modeling is presented for the first discovered example of a three-component source for which each component is quadruply imaged. The lens is a massive galaxy member of the cluster Cl J0152.7-1357 at z ~ 0.84. Taking…
We present a forecast analysis on the feasibility of measuring the cosmological parameters with a large number of galaxy-galaxy scale strong gravitational lensing systems. Future wide area surveys are expected to discover and measure the…
Ongoing and future imaging surveys represent significant improvements in depth, area and seeing compared to current data-sets. These improvements offer the opportunity to discover up to three orders of magnitude more galaxy-galaxy strong…
Lens modeling is the key to successful and meaningful automated strong galaxy-scale gravitational lens detection. We have implemented a lens-modeling "robot" that treats every bright red galaxy (BRG) in a large imaging survey as a potential…
Bayesian model selection methods provide a self-consistent probabilistic framework to test the validity of competing scenarios given a set of data. We present a case study application to strong gravitational lens parametric models. Our goal…
Low-redshift strong-lensing galaxies can provide robust measurements of the stellar mass-to-light ratios in early-type galaxies (ETG), and hence constrain variations in the stellar initial mass function (IMF). At present, only a few such…
Self-lensing (SL) represents a powerful technique for detecting compact objects in binary systems through gravitational microlensing effects, when a compact companion transits in front of its luminous partner. We present the first…
In strong gravitational lens systems, the light bending is usually dominated by one main galaxy, but may be affected by other mass along the line of sight (LOS). Shear and convergence can be used to approximate the contributions from less…
Strong gravitational lensing of gravitational wave sources offers a novel probe of both the lens galaxy and the binary source population. In particular, the strong lensing event rate and the time delay distribution of multiply-imaged…
We report the discovery of four groups of galaxies along the line of sight to the B1608+656 gravitational lens system. One group is at the redshift of the primary lensing galaxy (z = 0.631) and appears to have a low mass, with eight…
Like light, gravitational waves can be gravitationally lensed by massive astrophysical objects. Strong gravitational lensing by galaxies and galaxy clusters is anticipated to become observable in the coming years. This phenomenon will…
Strong gravitational lensing by clusters of galaxies probes the mass distribution at the core of each cluster and magnifies the universe behind it. MACS J0417.5-1154 at z=0.443 is one of the most massive clusters known based on weak…
Because of their simplicity, axisymmetric mass distributions are often used to model gravitational lenses. Since galaxies are usually observed to have elliptical light distributions, mass distributions with elliptical density contours offer…