Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T21:08:00.508Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Gravitational Lensing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 March 2016

Sjur Refsdal  and
Jean Surdej
Sjur Refsdal
Affiliation:
Hamburg Observatory, Gojenbergsweg 112, D – 2050 Hamburg 80, Germany
Jean Surdej
Affiliation:
Institut d’Astrophysique, Avenue de Cointe 5,B – 4000 Liège, Belgium

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Atmospheric lensing effects deform our view of distant objects; similarly, without any doubt, gravitational lensing perturbs our view of the distant Universe and affects our physical understanding of various classes of extragalactic objects. We summarize here part of the theoretical and observational evidences supporting these claims.

After briefly reviewing the history of gravitational lenses, we recall the basic principles underlying the formation of gravitationally lensed images of distant cosmic sources. We describe a simple optical lens experiment, which was actually shown during the oral discourse, and which accounts for all types of presently known gravitational lens systems.

The various optical and radio searches for new gravitational lens systems that are being carried out at major observatories are reviewed. State-of-the-art observations of selected gravitational lens systems, obtained with highly performing ground-based telescopes, are then presented. These include several examples of multiply imaged QSO images, radio rings and giant luminous arcs.

Through the modeling of these enigmatic objects, we show how it is possible to weigh the mass of distant lensing galaxies as well as to probe the distribution of luminous and dark matter in the Universe. Among the astrophysical and cosmological interests of observing and studying gravitational lenses, we also discuss the possibility of deriving the value of the Hubble parameter Ho from the measurement of a time delay, and how to determine the size and structure of distant quasars via the observational study of micro-lensing effects.

At the end of this paper, we conclude on how to possibly achieve major astro-physical and cosmological goals in the near future by dedicating, on a site with good atmospheric seeing conditions, a medium size (2-3 m) telescope to the photometric monitoring of the multiple images of known and suspected gravitational lens systems.

Type
Invited Discourses
Information
Highlights of Astronomy , Volume 9: Highlights of Astronomy. As presented at the XXIst General Assembly of the IAU, 1991 , 1992 , pp. 3 - 32
Copyright
Copyright © Kluwer 1992

References

References:

Angonin, M.C., Remy, M., Surdej, J., Vanderriest, C: 1990, Astron. Astrophys. Letters 233, L5–L8.Google Scholar
Blandford, R.D., Narayan, R.: 1992, preprint, to appear in Annual Review of Astron. Astrophys.Google Scholar
Borgeest, U.: 1986, Astrophys. J. 309, 467.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Borgeest, U., van Linde, J., Refsdal, S.: 1991, Astron. Astrophys. 251, L35.Google Scholar
Bourassa, R.R., Kantowski, R., Norton, T.D.: 1973, Astrophys. J. 185, 747.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burke, W.L.: 1981, Astrophys. J. 244, L1.Google Scholar
Chang, K., Refsdal, S.: 1976, Colloques Int. du C.N.R.S., 263, 369.Google Scholar
Chang, K., Refsdal, S.: 1979, Nature 282, 561.Google Scholar
Chwolson, O.: 1924, Astr. Nachr. 221, 329.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooke, J.H., Kantowski, R.: 1975, Astrophys. J. 195, L11.Google Scholar
Dyer, C.C., Roeder, R.C.: 1972, Astrophys. J. 174, L115.Google Scholar
Dyson, F.W., Eddington, A.S., Davidson, C.R.: 1920, Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. 220A, 291; Mem. Roy. Astron. Soc. 62, 291.Google Scholar
Falco, E.E., Gorenstein, M.V., Shapiro, I.I.: 1991, Astrophys. J. 372, 364.Google Scholar
Foltz, C.B., Weymann, R.J., Roeser, H.J., Chaffee, F.H.: 1984, Astrophys. J. 281, L1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gorenstein, M.V., Falco, E.E., Shapiro, I.I.: 1988, Astrophys. J. 327, 693.Google Scholar
Grieger, B., Kayser, R., Refsdal, S.: 1986, Nature 324, 126.Google Scholar
Grieger, B., Kayser, R., Refsdal, S.: 1988, Astron. Astrophys. 194, 54.Google Scholar
Hammer, F., Le Fèvre, O.: 1990, Astrophys. J. 357, 38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hewitt, J., Turner, E.L., Burke, B.F., Lawrence, C.R., Bennett, C.L., Langston, J.I., Gunn, J.E.: 1987, in “Observational Cosmology”, p. 751.Google Scholar
Hewitt, J.N., Turner, E.L., Schneider, D.P., Burke, B.F., Langston, G.I., Lawrence, C.R.: 1988, Nature 333, 537.Google Scholar
Huchra, J., Gorenstein, M., Kent, S., Shapiro, I., Smith, G., Horine, E., Perley, R.: 1985, Astron. J. 90, 691.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Irwin, M.J., Webster, R.L., Hewett, P.C., Corrigan, R.T., Jedrzejewski, R.I.: 1989, Astron. J. 98, 1989.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kayser, R., Refsdal, S., Stabell, R.: 1986, Astron. Astrophys. 166, 36.Google Scholar
Kayser, R., Refsdal, S.: 1989, Nature 338, 746.Google Scholar
Klimov, Y.G.: 1963, Sov. Phys. Doklady 8, 119.Google Scholar
Kochanek, C.S., Blandford, R.D., Lawrence, C.R., Narayan, R.: 1989, Monthly Notices Roy. Astron. Soc. 238, 43.Google Scholar
Langston, G.I., Schneider, D.P., Conner, S., Carilli, C.L., Lehár, J., Burke, B.F., Turner, E.L., Gunn, J.E., Hewitt, J.N., Schmidt, M.: 1989, Astron. J. 97, 1283.Google Scholar
Lelièvre, G., Nieto, J.-L., Salmon, D.: 1988, Astron. Astrophys. 200, 301.Google Scholar
Liebes, S.: 1964, Phys. Rev. B133, 835.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lynds, R., Petrosian, V.: 1986, Bull. Am. Astron. Soc. 18, 1014.Google Scholar
Magain, P., Surdej, J., Swings, J.-P., Borgeest, U., Kayser, R., Kühr, H., Refsdal, S., Remy, M.: 1988, Nature 334, 325.Google Scholar
Paczyński, B.: 1986, Astrophys. J. 304, 1.Google Scholar
Paczyński, B.: 1987, Nature 325, 572.Google Scholar
Press, W.H., Gunn, J.E.: 1973, Astrophys. J. 185, 397.Google Scholar
Press, W.H., Rybicki, G.B., Hewitt, J.N.: 1991, CfA preprint 3230.Google Scholar
Refsdal, S.: 1964a, Monthly Notices Roy. Astron. Soc. 128, 295.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Refsdal, S.: 1964b, Monthly Notices Roy. Astron. Soc. 128, 307.Google Scholar
Refsdal, S.: 1965, Proc. of the Int. Conf. on Relativistic Theories of Gravitation, London.Google Scholar
Refsdal, S.: 1966a, Monthly Notices Roy. Astron. Soc. 132, 101.Google Scholar
Refsdal, S.: 1966b, Monthly Notices Roy. Astron. Soc. 134, 315.Google Scholar
Refsdal, S.: 1970, Astrophys. J. 159, 357.Google Scholar
Rhee, G.: 1991, Nature 350, 211.Google Scholar
Schneider, P., Ehlers, J., Falco, E.E.: 1992, “Gravitational Lensing”, Springer-Verlag, in press.Google Scholar
Smette, A., Surdej, J., Shaver, P.A., Foltz, C.B., Chaffee, F.H., Weymann, R.J., Williams, R.E., Magain, P.: 1991, Astrophys. J., in press.Google Scholar
Soucail, G., Mellier, Y., Fort, B., Hammer, F., Mathez, G.: 1987, Astron. Astrophys. 184, L7.Google Scholar
Steidel, C.C., Sargent, W.L.W.: 1991, Astron. J., in press.Google Scholar
Surdej, J., Magain, P., Swings, J.-P., Borgeest, U., Courvoisier, T.J.-L., Kayser, R., Kellermann, K.I., Kuhr, H., Refsdal, S.: 1987, Nature 329, 695.Google Scholar
Surdej, J., Swings, J.P., Magain, P., Borgeest, U., Kayser, R., Refsdal, S., Courvoisier, T.J.-L., Kellermann, K.I., Kühr, H.: 1988, in the proceedings of a workshop on “Optical surveys for quasars”, Astron. Soc. of the Pac. Conf. Series 2, 183.Google Scholar
Surdej, J., Claeskens, J.F., Hutsemékers, D., Magain, P., Pirenne, B.: 1992, Proc. of the Hamburg Int. Conf. on Gravitational Lenses, Lecture Notes in Physics, Springer-Verlag, in press.Google Scholar
Tyson, J.A.: 1985, Nature 316, 799.Google Scholar
Tyson, J.A.: 1991, preprint.Google Scholar
Vanderriest, C., Gosset, E., Remy, M., Swings, J.P.: 1992, Proc. of the Hamburg Int. Conf. on Gravitational Lenses, Lecture Notes in Physics, Springer-Verlag, in press.Google Scholar
Walsh, D., Carswell, R.F., Weymann, R.J.: 1979, Nature 279, 381.Google Scholar
Wambsganss, J., Paczyński, B., Schneider, P.: 1990, Astrophys. J. 358, L33.Google Scholar
Weymann, R.J., Latham, D., Angel, J.R.P., Green, R.F., Liebert, J.W., Turnshek, D.A., Turnshek, D.E., Tyson, J.A.: 1980, Nature 285, 641.Google Scholar
Zel’dovich, Y.B.: 1964, Soviet Astron. 8, 13.Google Scholar
Zwicky, F.: 1937a, Phys. Rev. Lett. 51, 290.Google Scholar
Zwicky, F.: 1937b, Phys. Rev. Lett. 51, 679.Google Scholar