Dr. Anupreeta More

Gravitational lensing has numerous applications in astrophysics and cosmology. Large optical imaging surveys such as the Hyper Suprime Cam Survey are ideal for finding strong gravitational lenses. I will talk about various methods developed through which large samples of varied lenses have been discovered. With this sample, we can study unique lenses, lens properties such as the stellar initial mass functions and mass distributions and intrinsic source properties (e.g. sizes and luminosities). I will be talking about some of the results from this work and future plans. Gravitational waves (GW) from compact binary coalescences could also be strongly lensed and detected by GW observatories such as LIGO. The strongly lensed GW signals can further be affected by microlensing due to the compact population found within the lensing galaxies (e.g. stars and stellar remnants). I will talk about the conditions under which microlensing effects can become significant and the degree to which they can affect GW signal detections.