Impact Of Gravitational Lensing On Cosmology Iau S225

This book contains the proceedings of the International Astronomical Union Symposium no. 225, held in July 2004 at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), in Lausanne, Switzerland. The meeting focused on the applications of gravitational lensing to cosmological physics, and this book summarizes the most recent theoretical and observational developments. With chapters written by leading scientists in the field, this is a valuable resource for professional astronomers and graduate students in astronomy, physics and astro-particle physics.

This book contains the proceedings of the International Astronomical Union Symposium no. 225, held in July 2004 at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), in Lausanne, Switzerland. The meeting focused on the applications of gravitational lensing to cosmological physics, and this book summarizes the most recent theoretical and observational developments. Written by leading scientists in the field, the book is a valuable resource for professional astronomers and graduate students in astronomy, physics and astro-particle physics.

IAU Transactions XXVIB contains the Proceedings of the IAU XXVII General Assembly held in Prague, 14-25 August 2006, hosting a total of 2412 participants from 73 countries. The Assembly featured a rich scientific program, comprising 6 Symposia, 17 Joint Discussions and 7 Special Sessions. During the program about 650 papers were presented and more than 1550 posters displayed. The Proceedings of the 6 Symposia have been published in the Proceedings of the IAU Symposia Series, and the proceedings of the Joint Discussions and Special Sessions feature in IAU Highlights of Astronomy, 14. Together with those 7 volumes, these Transactions cover the entire General Assembly. In addition to the scientific program, the XXVI General Assembly hosted the regular Business Meetings of the EC, the 12 Divisions, 40 Commissions and 75 Working Groups. This volume records the organizational and administrative business of the XXVI General Assembly and the status of the IAU membership.

Light observed from distant objects is found to be deflected by the gravitational field of massive objects near the line of sight - an effect predicted by Einstein in his first paper setting forth the general theory of relativity, and confirmed by Eddington soon afterwards. If the source of the light is sufficiently distant and bright, and if the intervening object is massive enough and near enough to the line of sight, the gravitational field acts like a lens, focusing the light and producing one or more bright images of the source. This book, by renowned researchers in the field, begins by discussing the basic physics behind gravitational lenses: the optics of curved space-time. It then derives the appropriate equations for predicting the properties of these lenses. In addition, it presents up-to-date observational evidence for gravitational lenses and describes the particular properties of the observed cases. The authors also discuss applications of the results to problems in cosmology.

This book presents gravitational lensing as an essential tool in astrophysics for tracking dark matter at all scales in the Universe.

EDWIN TURNER AND RACHEL WEBSTER Co-Chairs, Scientific Organizing Committee lAU Symposium 173, Astrophysical Applications of Gravitational Lenses, was held in Melbourne, Australia from July 9-14, 1995. The Symposium was sponsored by lAU Commissions 47 and 40. With the discovery by Walsh and collaborators of the first instance of a gravitational lens, the multiply imaged quasar 0957+561, the area of grav itational lensing moved from speculative theory to a major astrophysical tool. Since that time, there have been regular, approximately biennial in ternational meetings both in Europe and in North America, which have specifically focussed on gravitational lensing. On this occasion, with the blessing of the lA U, the meeting was held at the University of Melbourne in Australia. It was the first international astronomical meeting to be held at the University of Melbourne, and hope fully has given the astronomical community some enthusiasm for trekking half-way round the globe to Australia to discuss their latest work.

Are we living in the "golden age" of cosmology? Are we close to understanding the nature of the unknown ingredients of the currently most accepted cosmological model and the physics of the early Universe? Or are we instead approaching a paradigm shift? What is dark matter and does it exist? How is it distributed around galaxies and clusters? Is the scientific community open to alternative ideas that may prompt a new scientific revolution - as the Copernican revolution did in Galileo's time? Do other types of supernovae exist that can be of interest for cosmology? Why have quasars never been effectively used as standard candles? Can you tell us about the scientific adventure of COBE? How does the extraction of the Cosmic Microwave Background anisotropy depend on the subtraction of the various astrophysical foregrounds? These, among many others, are the astrophysical, philosophical and sociological questions surrounding modern cosmology and the scientific community that Mauro D'Onofrio and Carlo Burigana pose to some of the most prominent cosmologists of our time. Triggered by these questions and in the spirit of Galileo's book "Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems" the roughly 40 interview partners reply in the form of essays, with a critical frankness not normally found in reviews, monographs or textbooks.