Related papers: Substructure and the Cusp and Fold Relations
Lens models appropriate for representing cusped galaxies and clusters are developed. The analogue of the odd number theorem for cusped density distributions is given. Density cusps are classified into strong, isothermal or weak, according…
All lens modeling methods, simply-parametrized, hybrid, and free-form, use assumptions to reconstruct galaxy clusters with multiply imaged sources, though the nature of these assumptions (priors) can differ considerably between methods.…
We study approximate solutions of the gravitational lens equation and corresponding lens magnification factor near the critical point. This consideration is based on the Taylor expansion of the lens potential in powers of coordinates and an…
In modeling strong gravitational lens systems, one often adopts simple models, such as singular isothermal elliptical density plus lowest-order external perturbation. However, such simple models may mislead us if the real mass distribution…
We show with analytic models that the assumption of uncorrelated intrinsic ellipticities of target sources that is usually made in searches for weak gravitational lensing due to large-scale mass inhomogeneities (``field lensing'') is…
We prove that, independent of the choice of a lens model, the total signed magnification always sums to zero for a source anywhere in the four-image regions of swallowtail, elliptic umbilic, and hyperbolic umbilic caustics. This is a more…
While many strong gravitational lens galaxies are suspected to lie in groups or clusters of galaxies, environmental effects in lens models are often unconstrained and sometimes ignored. We show that this creates significant biases in a…
Gravitational lensing is a powerful tool for constraining substructure in the mass distribution of galaxies, be it from the presence of dark matter sub-halos or due to physical mechanisms affecting the baryons throughout galaxy evolution.…
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…
In a quadruply imaged lens system the angular distribution of images around the lens center is completely described by three relative angles. We show empirically that in the 3D space of these angles, spanning 180 x 180 x 90 degrees, quads…
We use the structure of the Einstein ring image of the quasar host galaxy in the four-image quasar lens PG1115+080 to determine the angular structure of the gravitational potential of the lens galaxy. We find that it is well described as an…
Galaxy-galaxy or galaxy-quasar lensing can provide important information on the mass distribution in the Universe. It consists of correlating the lensing signal (either shear or magnification) of a background galaxy/quasar sample with the…
We investigate the so-called magnification relations of gravitational lensing models. We show that multidimensional residue integrals provide a simple explanation for the existence of these relations, and an effective method of computation.…
The flux-ratio anomalies observed in multiply-lensed quasar images are most plausibly explained as the result of perturbing structures superposed on the underlying smooth matter distribution of the primary lens. The cold dark matter…
Strong lensing is a powerful tool to address three major astrophysical issues: understanding the spatial distribution of mass at kpc and sub-kpc scale, where baryons and dark matter interact to shape galaxies as we see them; determining the…
In strong gravitational lensing, the multiple images we see correspond to light rays that leave the source in slightly different directions. If the source emission is anisotropic, the images may differ from conventional lensing predictions…
We demonstrate that for several of the gravitational lens models used to describe galaxies, there exists a quantity we dub the magnification invariant, equaling the sum of the signed magnifications of the images, that is a constant when the…
Dark matter structures within strong gravitational lens galaxies and along their line of sight leave a gravitational imprint on the multiple images of lensed sources. Strong gravitational lensing provides, therefore, a key test of different…
We present a selection of 24 candidate galaxy-galaxy lensing (GGLs) identified from Hubble images in the outskirts of the massive galaxy clusters from the CLASH survey. These GGLs provide insights into the mass distributions at larger…
Weak gravitational lensing seeks to determine shear by measuring induced quadrupole (elliptical) shapes in background galaxy images. Small impact parameter (a few kpc) gravitational lensing by foreground core masses between 2 10^{9} and 2…