Search for strong gravitational lensing effect in the current GRB data of BATSE

Because gamma-ray bursts(GRBs)trace the high-z universe,there is an appreciable probability for a GRB to be gravitational lensed by galaxies in the universe.Herein we consider the gravitational lensing effect of GRBs contributed by the dark matter halos in galaxies.Assuming that all halos have the singular isothermal sphere(SIS)mass profile in the mass range 1010h?1M?M2×1013h?1M?and all GRB samples follow the intrinsic redshift distribution and luminosity function derived from the Swift LGRBs sample,we calculated the gravitational lensing probability in BATSE,Swift/BAT and Fermi/GBM GRBs,respectively.With an derived probability result in BATSE GRBs,we searched for lensed GRB pairs in the BATSE5B GRB Spectral catalog.The search did not find any convincing gravitationally lensed events.We discuss our result and future observations for GRB lensing observation.     

Weak gravitational lensing of the CMB

Weak gravitational lensing has several important effects on the cosmic microwave background (CMB): it changes the CMB power spectra, induces non-Gaussianities, and generates a B-mode polarization signal that is an important source of confusion for the signal from primordial gravitational waves. The lensing signal can also be used to help constrain cosmological parameters and lensing mass distributions. We review the origin and calculation of these effects. Topics include: lensing in General Relativity, the lensing potential, lensed temperature and polarization power spectra, implications for constraining inflation, non-Gaussian structure, reconstruction of the lensing potential, delensing, sky curvature corrections, simulations, cosmological parameter estimation, cluster mass reconstruction, and moving lenses/dipole lensing.     

The formation of primary galactic nuclei during phase transitions in the early universe

A new mechanism describing the formation of protogalaxies is proposed, based on the second-order phase transition in the inflation stage and the domain wall formation upon the end of inflation. The presence of closed domain walls with the size markedly exceeding the cosmological horizon at the instant of their formation and the wall collapse in the postinflation epoch (when the wall size becomes comparable with the cosmological horizon) lead to the formation of massive black hole clusters that can serve as nuclei for the future galaxies. The black hole mass distributions obtained do not contradict the available experimental data. The number of black holes with M ～ 100 solar masses (M _⊙) and above is comparable with the number of galaxies in the visible Universe. Development of the proposed approach gives grounds for a principally new scenario of galaxy formation in the model of a hot Universe.     

Testing the variation of the fine structure constant with strongly lensed gravitational waves

The possible variation of the electromagnetic fine structure constant, αe, at cosmological scales has aroused great interest in recent years. Strongly lensed gravitational waves(GWs) and their electromagnetic counterparts could be used to test this variation. Under the assumption that the speed of a photon can be modified,whereas the speed of a GW is the same as predicted by general relativity, and they both propagate in a flat FriedmanRobertson-Walker universe, we investigated the difference in time delays of the images and derived the upper bound of the variation of αe. For a typical lensing system in the standard cosmological models, we obtained B cosθ 1.85×10~(-5),where B is the dipolar amplitude and θ is the angle between observation and the preferred direction. Our result is consistent with the most up-to-date observations on αe. In addition, the observations of strongly lensed GWs and their electromagnetic counterparts could be used to test which types of alternative theories of gravity can account for the variation of α_e.     

Time delay in the Einstein-Straus solution

We compute the time delay of strong lensing in the framework of the Einstein-Straus solution in presence of a cosmological constant and restrict ourselves to the case of a spatially flat universe. The calculations are done to first order in the ratio of Schwarzschild radius to peri-lens. We apply our results to the lensed quasar SDSS J1004+4112. Our predictions for the time delay between the images C and D of the quasar range from 6 to 13 years and are compatible with the experimental lower bound.     

Axion condensate as a model for dark matter halos

Localized solutions of an axion-like scalar model with a periodic self-interaction are analyzed as a model of dark matter halos. It is shown that such a cold Bose–Einstein type condensate can provide a substantial contribution to the observed rotations curves of galaxies, as well provide a soliton type interpretation of the dark matter ‘bullets’ observed via gravitational lensing in merging clusters.     

Strong lensing in the Einstein–Straus solution

We analyse strong lensing in the Einstein–Straus solution with positive cosmological constant. Our result confirms Rindler and Ishak’s finding that a positive cosmological constant decreases the bending of light by an isolated spherical mass. In agreement with an analysis by Ishak et al., this decrease is found to be attenuated by a homogeneous mass distribution added around the spherical mass and by a recession of the observer. For concreteness we compare the theory to the light deflection of the lensed quasar SDSS J1004+4112. To the memory of Jürgen Ehlers.     

Solar neutrino oscillation parameters after KamLAND

We explore the impact of the data from the KamLAND experiment in constraining neutrino mass and mixing angles involved in solar neutrino oscillations. In particular, we discuss the precision with which we can determine the mass squared difference Δm _⊙ ² and the mixing angle θ_⊙ from combined solar and KamLAND data. We show that the precision with which Δm _⊙ ² can be determined improves drastically with the KamLAND data, but the sensitivity of KamLAND to the mixing angle is not as good. We study the effect of enhanced statistics in KamLAND as well as reduced systematics in improving the precision. We also show the effect of the SNO salt data in improving the precision. Finally, we discuss how a dedicated reactor experiment with a baseline of 70 km can improve the θ_⊙ sensitivity by a large amount.     

Constraining fast radio burst progenitors with gravitational lensing

Fast Radio Bursts(FRBs)are new transient radio sources discovered recently.Because of the angular resolution restriction in radio surveys,no optical counter part has been identified yet so it is hard to determine the progenitor of FRBs.In this paper we propose to use radio lensing survey to constrain FRB progenitors.We show that,different types of progenitors lead to different probabilities for a FRB to be gravitationally lensed by dark matter halos in foreground galaxies,since different type progenitors result in different redshift distributions of FRBs.For example,the redshift distribution of FRBs arising from double stars shifts toward lower redshift than of the FRBs arising from single stars,because double stars and single stars have different evolution timescales.With detailed calculations,we predict that the FRB sample size for producing one lensing event varies significantly for different FRB progenitor models.We argue that this fact can be used to distinguish different FRB models and also discuss the practical possibility of using lensing observation in radio surveys to constrain FRB progenitors.     

A common origin of neutralino stars and supermassive black holes

To account for the microlensing events observed in the Galactic halo, Gurevich, Zybin, and Sirota have proposed a model of gravitationally bound, noncompact objects with masses of ～(0.01–1)M _⊙. These objects are formed in the expanding Universe from adiabatic density perturbations and consist of weakly interacting particles of dark matter, for example, neutralinos. They assumed the perturbation spectrum on some small scale to have a distinct peak. We show that the existence of this peak would inevitably give rise to a large number of primordial black holes (PBHs) with masses of ～10⁵ M _⊙ at the radiation-dominated evolutionary stage of the Universe. Constraints on the coefficient of nonlinear contraction and on the compactness parameter of noncompact objects were derived from constraints on the PBH number density. We show that noncompact objects can serve as gravitational lenses only at a large PBH formation threshold, δ_c > 0.5, or if noncompact objects are formed from entropic density perturbations.     

Characteristic Features of Gravitational Wave Lensing as Probe of Lens Mass Model

To recognize gravitational wave lensing events and being able to differentiate between similar lens models will be of crucial importance once one will be observing several lensing events of gravitational waves per year. In this work, the lensing of gravitational waves is studied in the context of LISA sources and wave-optics regime. While different papers before the studied microlensing effects enhanced by simultaneous strong lensing, the focus is on frequency (time) dependent phase effects produced by one lens that will be visible with only one lensed signal. It is shows how, in the interference regime (i.e., when interference patterns are present in the lensed image), one is able to i) distinguish a lensed waveform from an unlensed one, and ii) differentiate between different lens models. In pure wave-optics, on the other hand, the feasibility of the study depends on the signal-to-noise ratio of the signal and/or the amplitude of the lensing effect. To achieve these goals, the phase of the amplification factor of the different lens models and its effect on the unlensed waveform is studied, and the signal-to-noise calculation to provide some quantitative examples is exploited.     

Radio jets and galaxies as cosmic string probes

The lensing effect of a cosmic string is studied, and some new methods are proposed to detect the cosmic string. The technique for using jets as extended gravitational lensing probes was first explored by Kronberg.We use the “alignment-breaking parameter” ηG as a sensitive indicator of gravitational distortion by a wiggly cosmic string. Then, we applied the non-constant deflection angle to jets, and ηG of a specific jet is just related to the projected slope of the jet. At least three jets in the sample of Square Kilometer Array (SKA) would have significant signals (ηG>10°) if the wiggly infinite cosmic string existed. The distortion of elliptical object is also studied and used to do a statistical research on the directions of axes and ellipticities of galaxies. In the direction of the string, we find that galaxies appear to be more elliptical for an observer and the distribution of apparent ellipticity changes correspondingly. The ellipticity distribution of current SDSS spiral sample has the signalto-noise ratio up to 8.48 which is large enough for astronomical observations. The future survey, such as Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) and Dark Energy Survey (DES) would weaken the requirement of special geometry in the data processing. As a result, all kinds of distributions, including ellipticity axis distribution, would serve as probes to detect wiggly strings in the near future. In brief, if a wiggly cosmic string existed, these signals would be convenient to be observed with the future weak lensing survey or other surveys in the deep space. If there was no lensing signal in these distributions, it would give the upper limit of the abundance of infinite strings.     

Possible galactic sources of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays and a strategy for their detection via gravitational lensing

If decays of superheavy relic particles in the galactic halo are responsible for ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays, these particles must be clustered to account for small-scale anisotropy in the AGASA data. We show that the masses of such clusters are large enough for them to gravitationally lens stars and galaxies in the background. We propose a general strategy that can be used to detect such clusters via gravitational lensing, or to rule out the hypothesis of decaying relic particles as the origin of highest energy cosmic rays.     

An efficient method to identify galaxy clusters by using SuperCOSMOS, 2MASS and WISE data

The survey data of Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer(WISE)provide an opportunity for the identification of galaxy clusters.We present an efficient method for detecting galaxy clusters by combining the WISE data with SuperCOSMOS and 2MASS data.After performing star-galaxy separation,we calculate the number of companion galaxies around the galaxies with photometric redshifts previously estimated by the SuperCOSMOS,2MASS and WISE data.A scaled richness Rscal 30 is set as a criterion to identify clusters.From a sky area of 275 deg2of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Stripe 82 region,we identify 302 clusters in the redshift range of 0.1z0.35,247(82%)of which are previously known SDSS clusters.The results suggest that our method is efficient for identifying galaxy clusters by using the all sky data of the SuperCOSMOS,2MASS and WISE.     

Searching for decaying axionlike dark matter from clusters of galaxies

We constrain the lifetime of radiatively decaying dark matter in clusters of galaxies inspired by generic Kaluza-Klein axions, which have been invoked as a possible explanation for the solar coronal x-ray emission. These particles can be produced inside stars and remain confined by the gravitational potential of clusters. By analyzing x-ray observations of merging clusters, where gravitational lensing observations have identified massive, baryon poor structures, we derive the first cosmological lifetime constraint on this kind of particles of tau > or = 10(23) sec.     

The nature of [S III]λλ9096, 9532 emitters at z = 1.34 and 1.23

A study of [S iii]λλ9096, 9532 emitters at z = 1.34 and 1.23 is presented using our deep narrow-band H ₂ S 1 (centered at 2.13 μm) imaging survey of the Extended Chandra Deep Field South (ECDFS). We combine our data with multi-wavelength data of ECDFS to build up spectral energy distributions (SEDs) from the U to the K _s-band for emitter candidates selected with strong excess in H ₂ S 1 ? K _s and derive photometric redshifts, line luminosities, stellar masses and extinction. A sample of 14 [S iii] emitters are identified with H ₂ S 1 < 22.8 and K _s < 24.8 (AB) over 381 arcmin² area, having [S iii] line luminosity L _[SIII] =～ 1041.5–42.6 erg s^?1. None of the [S iii] emitters is found to have X-ray counterpart in the deepest Chandra 4Ms observation, suggesting that they are unlikely powered by AGNs. The HST/ACS F606W and HST/WFC3 F160W images show their rest-frame UV and optical morphologies. About half of the [S iii] emitters are mergers and at least one third are disk-type galaxies. Nearly all [S iii] emitters exhibit a prominent Balmer break in their SEDs, indicating the presence of a significant post-starburst component. Taken together, our results imply that both shock heating in post-starburst and photoionization caused by young massive stars are likely to excite strong [S iii] emission lines. We conclude that the [S iii] emitters in our sample are dominated by star-forming galaxies (SFGs) with stellar mass 8.7 < log(M/M _⊙) < 9.9.     

Cosmology with cluster surveys

Surveys of clusters of galaxies provide us with a powerful probe of the density and nature of the dark energy. The red-shift distribution of detected clusters is highly sensitive to the dark energy equation of state parameterw. Upcoming Sunyaev-Zel’dovich (SZ) surveys would provide us large yields of clusters to very high red-shifts. Self-calibration of cluster scaling relations, possible for such a huge sample, would be able to constrain systematic biases on mass estimators. Combining cluster red-shift abundance with limited mass follow-up and cluster mass power spectrum can then give constraints onw, as well as onσ ₈ and Ω_M to a few per cents.     

Mathematics of gravitational lensing: multiple imaging and magnification

The mathematical theory of gravitational lensing has revealed many generic and global properties. Beginning with multiple imaging, we review Morse-theoretic image counting formulas and lower bound results, and complex-algebraic upper bounds in the case of single and multiple lens planes. We discuss recent advances in the mathematics of stochastic lensing, discussing a general formula for the global expected number of minimum lensed images as well as asymptotic formulas for the probability densities of the microlensing random time delay functions, random lensing maps, and random shear, and an asymptotic expression for the global expected number of micro-minima. Multiple imaging in optical geometry and a spacetime setting are treated. We review global magnification relation results for model-dependent scenarios and cover recent developments on universal local magnification relations for higher order caustics.     

From trees to galaxies: The Potts model on a random surface

The matrix model of random surfaces with c = ∞ has recently been solved and found to be identical to a random surface coupled to a q-states Potts model with q = ∞. The mean field-like solution exhibits a novel type of tree structure. The natural question is, down to which—if any—finite values of c and q does this behavior persist? In this work we develop, for the Potts model, an expansion in the fluctuations about the q = ∞ mean field solution. In the lowest—cubic—non-trivial order in this expansion the corrections to mean field theory can be given a nice interpretation in terms of structures (trees and “galaxies”) of spin clusters. When q drops below a finite q_c, the galaxies overwhelm the trees at all temperatures, thus suppressing mean field behavior. Thereafter the phase diagram resembles that of the Ising model, q = 2.