Astrophysical Applications of Gravitational Lensing

This book presents gravitational lensing as an essential tool in astrophysics for tracking dark matter at all scales in the Universe.

Evencio Mediavilla (Edited by), Jose A. Muñoz (Edited by), Francisco Garzón (Edited by), Terence J. Mahoney (Edited by)

9781107078543, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 6 October 2016

302 pages, 136 b/w illus. 12 tables
25.2 x 17.8 x 1.7 cm, 0.75 kg

'Each article is self-contained and as a whole it presents an overview of the field of strong lensing … For the reader who is entering the filed this is a useful collection that summarizes it well.' Alan Heavens, The Observatory

Gravitational lenses offer the best, and sometimes the only, means of tackling key problems in many fields of astrophysics and cosmology. According to Einstein's theory, the curvature of light-rays increases with mass; gravitational lenses can be used to map the distribution of mass in a Universe in which virtually all matter is dark matter of an unknown nature. Gravitational lensing has significantly improved our knowledge of many astrophysical phenomena, such as exoplanets, galaxies, active galactic nuclei, quasars, clusters, large-scale structure and the Universe itself. All these topics are covered fully in this book, together with two tutorials on lens and microlensing modelling. The future of lensing in relation to large surveys and the anticipated discoveries of thousands more gravitational lenses is also discussed, making this volume an ideal guide for postgraduate students and practising researchers in the use of gravitational lenses as a tool in their investigations.

Contributors
Participants
Preface
Acknowledgements
1. Lensing basics Sherry H. Suyu
2. Exoplanet microlensing Andrew Gould
3. Case studies of microlensing Veronica Motta and Emilio Falco
4. Microlensing of quasars and AGN Joachim Wambsganss
5. DM in clusters and large-scale structure Peter Schneider
6. The future of strong lensing Chris Fassnacht
7. Methods for strong lens modelling Charles Keeton
8. Tutorial on inverse ray shooting Jorge Jimenez-Vicente.

Subject Areas: Astrophysics [PHVB], Cosmology & the universe [PGK], Astronomy, space & time [PG]