Strong Gravitational Lensing with SKA
Abstract
The advent of new observational facilities in the last two decades has allowed the rapid discovery and high-resolution optical imaging of many strong lens systems from galaxy to cluster scales, as well as their spectroscopic follow-up. Radio telescopes have played the dominant role in the systematic detection of dozens of new arcsec-scale lens systems. For the future, we expect nothing less! The next major ground- and space-based facilities, especially the Square Kilometer Array can discover tens of thousands of new lens systems in large sky surveys. For optical imaging and spectroscopic follow-up a strong synergy with planned optical facilities is needed. Here, we discuss the field where strong gravitational lensing is expected to play the dominant role and where SKA can have a major impact: The study of the internal mass structure and evolution of galaxies and clusters to z~1. In addition, studies of more exotic phenomena are contemplated. For example, milli- and microlensing can provide a way to measure the mass-functions of stars and CDM substructure at cosmological distances. All-sky radio monitoring will also rapidly develop the field of time-domain lensing.
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0409095,
title = {Strong Gravitational Lensing with SKA},
author = {L. V. E. Koopmans and I. W. A. Browne and N. J. Jackson},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0409095},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
9 pages, 3 figures; to appear in "Science with the Square Kilometer Array," eds. C. Carilli and S. Rawlings, New Astronomy Reviews (Elsevier: Amsterdam)