Related papers: Brane World Cosmologies and Statistical Properties…
In this paper we investigate the statistical properties of gravitational lenses for models in which a cosmological term decreases with time as $\Lambda \propto a^{-m}$, where $a$ is the scale factor and $m$ is a parameter ($0 \leq m < 3$).…
We re-analyze constraints on the cosmological constant that can be obtained by examining the statistics of strong gravitational lensing of distant quasars by intervening galaxies, focusing on uncertainties in galaxy models (including…
Over the past decade advancements in the understanding of several astrophysical phenomena have allowed us to infer a concordance cosmological model that successfully accounts for most of the observations of our universe. This has opened up…
The presence of dark energy in the Universe is inferred directly and indirectly from a large body of observational evidence. The simplest and most theoretically appealing possibility is the vacuum energy density (cosmological constant).…
Strong gravitational lenses are unique cosmological probes. These produce multiple images of a single source. Whether a single galaxy, a group or a cluster, extracting cosmologically relevant information requires an accurate modeling of the…
An alternative way of explaining astrophysical observations without dark matter is proposed. In the braneworld scenario, where our universe is visualised as a 4-dimensional hypersurface embedded in a higher dimensional spacetime, the…
The last decade has shown a considerable development of gravitational lensing for cosmology because it probes the amount and the nature of dark matter, and provides information on the density parameter $\Omega$, the cosmological constant…
In this article, we develop a formalism which is different from the standard lensing scenario and is necessary for understanding lensing by gravitational fields which arise as solutions of the effective Einstein equations on the brane. We…
We reanalyse optical gravitational lens surveys from the literature in order to determine relative probabilities in the $\lambda_{0}$-$\Omega_{0}$ plane, using a softened singular isothermal sphere lens model. In addition, we examine a…
Brane-world models, where observers are restricted to a brane in a higher-dimensional spacetime, offer a novel perspective on cosmology. I discuss some approaches to cosmology in extra dimensions and some interesting aspects of gravity and…
For a wide variety of cosmological models characterized by the cosmic mass density $\Omega_M$ and the normalized cosmological constant $\Omega_{\Lambda}$, we derive an analytic expression for the estimate of magnification cross-sections by…
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 study the effect of the cosmological constant on the statistical properties of gravitational lenses in flat cosmologies (Omega_{0}+lambda_{0} = 1). It is shown that some of the lens observables are strongly affected by the cosmological…
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…
A large number of cosmological studies now suggest that roughly two-thirds of the critical energy density of the Universe exists in a component with negative pressure. If the equation of state of such an energy component varies with time,…
The effective four-dimensional, linearised gravity of a brane world model with one extra dimension and a single brane is analysed. The model includes higher order curvature terms (such as the Gauss-Bonnet term) and a conformally coupled…
The acceleration of the expansion of the universe represents one of the major challenges to our current understanding of fundamental physics. In principle, to explain this phenomenon, at least two different routes may be followed: either…
We discuss how different cosmological models of the Universe affect the probability that a background source has multiple images related by an angular distance $\theta_E$ of the line of sight, \textit{i. e.}, the optical depth of…
Extensive analyses of statistical strong gravitational lensing are performed based on the final Cosmic Lens All Sky Survey (CLASS) well-defined statistical sample of flat spectrum radio sources and current estimates of galaxy luminosity…
The self-accelerating braneworld model (DGP) seems to provide a simple alternative to the the standard $\Lambda$CDM cosmology to explain the current cosmic acceleration, which is strongly indicated by measurements of Type Ia supernovae, as…