Related papers: Cluster Cores, Gravitational Lensing, and Cosmolog…
We examine whether a cosmologically significant distribution of dark galaxy group or cluster-sized objects can have an optical depth for multiple imaging of distant background sources which is comparable to that from known galaxies while at…
The absence of any wide-separation gravitational lenses in the Large Bright Quasar Survey is used to place limits on the population of cluster-sized halos in the universe, and hence constrain a number of cosmological parameters. The results…
We examine gravitational lensing constraints on the structure of galaxy clusters and compare them with the results of cosmological N-body simulations of cluster formation in cold dark matter (CDM) dominated universes. We find that cluster…
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…
The statistics of wide-separation (6'' < theta < 15'') gravitational lenses constrain the amount of mass in the cores of dark matter halos on group and cluster mass scales. For a family of halo models with a central cusp $\rho \propto…
Gravitational lensing provides a unique probe of the inner 10-1000 pc of distant galaxies (z=0.2-1). Lens theory predicts that every strong lens system should have a faint image near the center of the lens galaxy, which should be visible in…
Observations of a flat density profile in the cores of dark-matter-dominated halos on the two extremes of mass for virialized objects in the universe, dwarf galaxies and galaxy clusters, present a serious challenge to the current standard…
We report on SPT-CLJ2011-5228, a giant system of arcs created by a cluster at $z=1.06$. The arc system is notable for the presence of a bright central image. The source is a Lyman Break galaxy at $z_s=2.39$ and the mass enclosed within the…
Motivated by the significant overdensity of background bright quasars recently detected behind the foreground clusters of galaxies on scale of $10$ arcminutes, we have investigated the possibility of attributing the quasar-cluster…
Using stellar dynamics and strong gravitational lensing as complementary probes, Sand et al. (2002, 2003) have recently claimed strong evidence for shallow dark matter density profiles in several lensing clusters, which may conflict with…
We use the statistics of strong gravitational lenses to investigate whether mass profiles with a flat density core are supported. The probability for lensing by halos modeled by a nonsingular truncated isothermal sphere (NTIS) with image…
The properties of substructure in galaxy clusters, exquisitely probed by gravitational lensing, offer a stringent test of dark matter (DM) models. Combining strong- and weak-lensing data for massive clusters, we map their total mass --…
Accurate measurements of the mass distribution in galaxy and cluster halos are essential to test the cold dark matter (CDM) paradigm. The cosmological model predicts a universal shape for the density profile in all halos, independent of…
Strong gravitational lensing by galaxy clusters is a fundamental tool to study dark matter and constrain the geometry of the Universe. Recently, the Hubble Space Telescope Frontier Fields programme has allowed a significant improvement of…
We use the semi-analytical approach to analyze gravitational lensing of quasars by dark halos in various cold dark matter (CDM) cosmologies, in order to determine the sensitivity of the prediction probabilities of images separations to the…
Weak gravitational lensing provides a direct way to study the mass distribution of clusters of galaxies at large radii. Unfortunately, large scale structure along the line of sight also contributes to the lensing signal, and consequently…
We investigate the statistics of gravitational lenses in flat, low-density cosmological models with different cosmic equations of state w. We compute the lensing probabilities as a function of image separation \theta using a lens population…
We test the precision with which weak lensing data can provide characteristic cluster mass profiles within Cold Dark Matter scenarios. Using a parallel treecode to simulate volumes as large as 500h-1 Mpc with good resolution, we generate…
The core mass of galaxy clusters is both an important anchor of the radial mass distribution profile and probe of structure formation. With thousands of strong lensing galaxy clusters being discovered by current and upcoming surveys,…
Cluster mass profiles are tests of models of structure formation. Only two current observational methods of determining the mass profile, gravitational lensing and the caustic technique, are independent of the assumption of dynamical…