Special Issue "Gravitational Lensing and Its Consequences in Astrophysics and Cosmology"

Dear Colleagues,

One accurate prediction of the General Theory of Relativity is the bending of light in the presence of massive objects, which was experimentally verified during a solar eclipse. The gravitational field of extremely massive objects, such as stars, galaxies, galactic clusters, etc., which wraps time and space around it, causes bending in such a manner that the massive objects act as a lens; this phenomenon is known as gravitational lensing. A natural magnified glass is a powerful tool in studying the properties of the universe and probes to determine the distribution of masses of clusters and galaxies and dark matter. With a strong gravitational lensing effect, distant cosmic objects appear to have multiple images. This can provide valuable information about the distribution of masses, the mass itself, and the shape of the lensing objects. The appearance of much magnified and brighter distant objects makes it possible to detect faint objects. Weak gravitational lensing leads distant objects to appear distorted, which can be probed to infer the distribution of dark matter. The occurrence of lensing on much smaller scales, known as microlensing, can be used to detect and study exoplanets.

This Special Issue will focus on recent research on gravitational lensing providing new insights into some of the fundamental questions in astrophysics and cosmology, including detecting and mapping of the existence dark matter, the topological defects arising due to symmetry breaking in the early universe, the properties of black holes, the nature of the symmetry of large-scale structures, and the evolution and expansion of the universe and properties of gravitational waves and the objects that produce them.

Articles are invited in the following areas:

Strong gravitational lensing, weak gravitational lensing, microlensing, symmetry of large-scale structures, symmetry breaking in the early universe, dark matter, cosmology, gravitational wave, massive objects, large-scale structures, light bending, black holes, galaxy evolution.

Prof. Dr. Farook Rahaman
Dr. Piyali Bhar
Dr. Shyam Das
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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