Related papers: Can a Gravitational Lens Magnify Gravity? A Possib…
The gravitational field of the sun will focus light from a distant source to a focal point at a minimal distance of 550 Astronomical Units from the sun. A proposed mission to this gravitational focus could use the sun as a very large lens,…
Exoplanet imaging using the solar gravitational lens is an enticing prospect. The fundamental physical properties of the lens, including its angular resolution and light amplification, promise exceptional capabilities. These expectations,…
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…
Gravitational lensing has developed into one of the most powerful tools for the analysis of the dark universe. This review summarises the theory of gravitational lensing, its main current applications and representative results achieved so…
The transparent Sun is modeled as a spherically symmetric and centrally condensed gravitational lens using recent Standard Solar Model (SSM) data. The Sun's minimum focal length is computed to a refined accuracy of 23.5 +/- 0.1 AU, just…
Strong gravitational lenses allow us to peer into the farthest reaches of space by bending the light from a background object around a massive object in the foreground. Unfortunately, these lenses are extremely rare, and manually finding…
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…
The last decade has seen an enormous increase of activity in the field of gravitational lensing, mainly driven by improvements of observational capabilities. I will review the basics of gravitational lens theory, just enough to understand…
A complete manual search has been carried out of the list of 285423 objects, nearly all of them galaxies, identified in the COSMOS field that are brighter than I=25. Two certain and one highly probable new gravitational lenses are found, in…
Gravitational lensing refers to the deflection of light by the gravity of celestial bodies, often predominantly composed of dark matter. Seen through a gravitational lens, the images of distant galaxies appear distorted. In this paper we…
Gravitational lensing has established itself as a valuable tool in many astrophysical fields in the roughly 20 years of its existence as an observational science. In this brief review, first the basics of lensing are introduced. Then it is…
The density of stars and MACHOs in the universe could theoretically be determined or limited by simultaneous measurements of compact sources by well separated observers. A gravitational lens effect would be expected to create a slight…
Gravitational Lensing is an efficient tool to probe: the mass distribution of collapsed systems: galaxies and clusters; high redshift objects thanks to the gravitational amplification; and the geometry of the Universe. I will review here…
For suitable gravitational lens systems with unknown lens redshifts, the redshifts and brightnesses (in different colours) of the lenses are predicted for a variety of cosmological models, for both elliptical and spiral galaxy lenses.…
This work reviews the basic theoretical aspects, the main observational evidences and the recent applications of gravitational lensing in the Universe. The article is aimed particularly at providing the readers who don't work on…
Large scale imaging surveys will increase the number of galaxy-scale strong lensing candidates by maybe three orders of magnitudes beyond the number known today. Finding these rare objects will require picking them out of at least tens of…
Compact objects with magnetic dipole are considered as gravitational lenses. The presence of strong magnetic field near the photon sphere can affect the trajectory of light. We compute the deflection angle near the photon sphere on the…
The mass of an astrophysical object can be estimated by the amount of gravitational lensing of another object that it causes. To arrive at the estimation however, one assumes the validity of the inverse square law of gravity, or…
Gravitational lensing is a powerful probe of cosmology and astrophysics. With the prospect of the first strongly lensed gravitational waves on the horizon, we highlight an opportunity to test fundamental physics. In this work, we assume a…
A review of strong gravitational lensing and its astrophysical uses.