(Back to the menu - click here.)

"Gravitationally Lensed Supernovae"

Date:

Download-files:

Time:

Thursday, 09. May 2019

Video-Recording for any system with MP4-support

- Video.mp4 (ca.311 Mb)

15:15 – 16:15

Ariel Goobar

(Stockholm University)

Abstract :

Light from distant astronomical sources is deflected by space-time curvature, as

described by Einstein’s theory of General Relativity. Close alignment between the

light source, intervening matter and the observer at Earth can result in significant

enhancement of the measured flux. This phenomenon, known as gravitational lensing,

can be used to study distant faint sources, as well as the properties of the objects

acting as lenses. Furthermore, time-delay measurements between lensed images of

supernova explosions can be used to measure the Hubble constant, i.e., the expansion

rate of the Universe. Various recent results involving gravitational lensing of supernovae

will be discussed, including the discovery of the first multiply-imaged “standard candle”

supernova, iPTF16geu. An intriguing realization is that supernova searches, even from

astronomical facilities with rather poor angular resolution, can locate extremely rare

astronomical systems exhibiting strong gravitational lensing, and probe angular scales

too small to be resolved even by the sharpest space observatories.