Related papers: The Current Status of CLASS
The light we observe from distant astrophysical objects including supernovae and quasars allows us to determine large distances in terms of a cosmological model. Despite the success of the standard cosmological model in fitting the data,…
Time delays from strong gravitational lensing provide a one-step absolute distance measurement. Thus, they measure $H_0$ independently of all other probes. We first review the foundations and history of time-delay cosmography. Then, we…
We present the current status of cosmic shear based on all surveys done so far. Taken together, they cover more about 70 deg$^2$ and concern more than 3 million galaxies with accurate shape measurement. Theoretical expectations,…
The present status of weak lensing analyses of clusters of galaxies and of cosmic shear surveys are presented and discussed. We focus on the impact of very large telescopes on present-day and future surveys and compare their potential with…
The incidence of sub-galactic level substructures is an important quantity, as it is a generic prediction of high-resolution Cold Dark Matter (CDM) models which is susceptible to observational test. Confrontation of theory with observations…
We summarize here the discussions around photospheric constraints, current uncertainties in models of stellar atmospheres, and reports on ongoing spectroscopic surveys. Rather than a panorama of the state of the art, we chose to present a…
Recent developments in gravitational lensing astronomy have paved the way to genuine mappings of the gravitational potential at cosmological scales. We stress that comparing these data with traditional large scale structure surveys will…
Strong lensing has developed into an important astrophysical tool for probing both cosmology and galaxies (their structures, formations, and evolutions). Now several hundreds of strong lens systems produced by massive galaxies have been…
Multiply lensed sources experience a relative time delay in the arrival of photons. This effect can be used to measure absolute distances and the Hubble constant ($H_0$) and is known as time-delay cosmography. The methodology is independent…
Context. Time delay lensing is a powerful tool to measure the Hubble constant $H_0$. In order to obtain an accurate estimate of $H_0$ from a sample of time delay strong lenses, however, it is necessary to have a very good knowledge of the…
Thanks to new technology of observations and fresh inputs from particle physics, cosmology has advanced on both observational and theoretical fronts. It is therefore opportune that we take stock of the cosmological situation today and…
Ongoing microlensing surveys have already yielded more than five hundred microlensing events, most of which have been identified in real-time. In this review I present the basic theory and observational status of these surveys. I highlight…
The general idea of determining cosmological parameters with gravitational lensing statistics is outlined, and then recent work---with an emphasis on applicability to all cosmological models, observational bias, better statistics and…
Strong lensing time delay cosmography has excellent complementarity with other dark energy probes, and will soon have abundant systems detected. We investigate two issues in the imaging and spectroscopic followup required to obtain the time…
Understanding galaxy formation is one of the most pressing issues in cosmology. We review the current status of galaxy formation from both an observational and a theoretical perspective, and summarise the prospects for future advances.
The present day observations favour a universe which is flat, accelerated and composed of $\sim 1/3$ matter (baryonic + dark) and $\sim 2/3$ of a negative pressure component, usually referred to as dark energy or quintessence. The Cosmic…
Over the last decade, cosmological observations have attained a level of precision which allows for detailed comparison with theoretical predictions. In this paper, we briefly review some studies of the current and prospected constraints…
Multiply imaged time-variable sources can be used to measure absolute distances as a function of redshifts and thus determine cosmological parameters, chiefly the Hubble Constant H$_0$. In the two decades up to 2020, through a number of…
Weak gravitational lensing is one of the key probes of the cosmological model, dark energy, and dark matter, providing insight into both the cosmic expansion history and large scale structure growth history. Taking into account a broad…
In this introductory talk I give an elementary overview of the development, current status, and near term outlook for three probes of large scale structure; galaxy clustering, bulk flows and weak lensing observations.