Related papers: The CASTLES gravitational lensing tool
Gravitational lensing is the phenomenon arising when light rays are deflected by the mass between the source and the observer. Largely magnified and highly distorted images of background galaxies are formed by these angular deflections if…
Dark matter caustics have specific density profiles and, therefore, precisely calculable gravitational lensing properties. We present a formalism which simplifies the relevant calculations, and apply it to four specific cases. In the first…
While the direct detection of the dark-matter particle remains very challenging, the nature of dark matter could be possibly constrained by comparing the observed abundance and properties of small-scale sub-galactic mass structures with…
Strong gravitational lensing and stellar dynamics provide two complementary and orthogonal constraints on the density profiles of galaxies. Based on spherically symmetric, scale-free, mass models, it is shown that the combination of both…
Strong lensing gravitational time delays are a powerful and cost effective probe of dark energy. Recent studies have shown that a single lens can provide a distance measurement with 6-7 % accuracy (including random and systematic…
We report modelling follow-up of recently-discovered gravitational-lens candidates in the Canada France Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey. Lens modelling was done by a small group of specially-interested volunteers from the SpaceWarps…
We combine photometry and lens modeling to study the properties of 17 gravitational lens galaxies between z=0.1 and 1. Most of the lens galaxies are passively evolving early-type galaxies, with a few spirals. The colors, scale lengths, and…
Strong gravitational lensing is a powerful technique for probing galaxy mass distributions and for measuring cosmological parameters. We present a pixelated approach to modeling simultaneously the lens potential and source intensity of…
Modern applications of strong gravitational lensing require the ability to use precise and varied observational data to constrain complex lens models. I discuss two sets of computational methods for lensing calculations. The first is a new…
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…
Despite consistent progress in numerical simulations, the observable properties of galaxy clusters are difficult to predict ab initio. It is therefore important to compare both theoretical and observational results to a direct measure of…
The alignments of galaxies across the large-scale structure of the Universe are known to be a source of contamination for gravitational lensing, but they can also probe cosmology and the physics of galaxy evolution in many ways. In this…
In a recent paper, Hawkins (1997) argues on the basis of statistical studies of double-image gravitational lenses and lens candidates that a large population of dark lenses exists and that these outnumber galaxies with more normal…
Many distant objects can only be detected, or become more scientifically valuable, if they have been highly magnified by strong gravitational lensing. We use EAGLE and BAHAMAS, two recent cosmological hydrodynamical simulations, to predict…
Strong gravitational lensing provides a powerful means for studying faint galaxies in the distant universe. By magnifying the apparent brightness of background sources, massive clusters enable the detection of galaxies fainter than the…
Galaxy cluster-scale strong gravitational lensing systems are rare yet valuable tools for investigating the properties of dark matter and dark energy, as well as providing the opportunity to study the distant universe at flux levels and…
Strong gravitational lensing offers a compelling test of the cold dark matter paradigm, as it allows for subhaloes with masses of $\sim10^{9}$ M$_\odot$ and below to be detected. We test commonly-used techniques for detecting subhaloes…
A total of 10 good candidates for gravitational lensing have been discovered in the WFPC2 images from the HST Medium Deep Survey (MDS) and archival primary observations. These candidate lenses are unique HST discoveries, i.e. they are faint…
Like many areas of astrophysics and cosmology, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory will be transformational for almost all the applications of strong lensing, thanks to the dramatic increase in the number of known strong lenses by two orders of…
Strong gravitational lensing is an important tool to probe the universe. In the theoretical analysis of gravitational lensing, it is assumed that continuous density profile can correctly describe the lens galaxy. But in fact this assumption…