Seminar

Strong gravitational lensing refers to the deflection and magnification of light from a distant object by the gravitational field of a massive, foreground, object, such as galaxies or galaxy clusters. When multiple images of the same background galaxy are formed, this spectacular mirage is called strong lensing. This phenomenon is nowadays at the very heart of key questions in modern cosmology, allowing one to directly measure the total projected mass distribution (baryonic and dark) of galaxy cluster cores, to image and study very high-redshift sources, and to probe the cosmic geometry and expansion rate. With the first light of cutting-edge facilities such as the JWST, Euclid, and Rubin-LSST, we are entering the dawn of a golden era for strong gravitational lensing with galaxy clusters. In this talk, I will review how these new data, in combination with detailed modelling techniques, enable us to exploit galaxy clusters to probe the dark components of the Universe.

Ana Acebrón Muñoz uses strong gravitational lensing by galaxy clusters to study dark matter in these systems and probe the key cosmological parameters defining the geometry and expansion rate of the Universe. To do this, she obtains and analyses spectro-photometric data from cutting-edge space- and ground-based telescopes. She obtained her PhD in Marseille (France) in 2017 and has worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Universities of Ben Gurion (Israel) and of Milan (Italy). She joined IFCA as a Beatriz Galindo Fellow at the end of 2023. ​