Joint Astrophysics Colloquium

Joint Astrophysics Seminar

Probing the nature of dark matter and dark energy using gravitational lensing

Priya Natarajan

Yale University

Gravitational lensing has been used very successfully to constrain the details of mass distributions on a range of scales. Applying galaxy-galaxy lensing techniques in the context of dense cluster environments, I will present results that provide important constraints on dark matter substructure and also provide interesting clues to the nature of dark matter and its equation of state. Detailed comparison of lensing inferred dark matter properties with those of simulated clusters from the Millennium Run will also be presented. A feasible technique to constrain dark energy using cluster strong lensing will also be discussed.