Speaker
Aleksi Halkola
Description
In gravitational lensing the light rays from sources behind the massive body are deflected due to the distortion of space-time around massive bodies as described by general relativity. In an astronomical context this leads to distortions in the shapes of observed images of, for example, galaxies behind other galaxies and galaxy clusters. These distortions can be used to estimate the amount and distribution matter on a large variety of scales from galaxies to the universe as a whole. Since gravitational lensing effect does not depend on the light emitted or absorbed by the deflecting matter, it is ideally suited for the study of the properties of dark matter. In this talk I review some of the ways gravitational lensing can be used to obtain constraints on the properties of dark matter.