Physics Commons^™

Computer Programming To Advance Gravitational Lensing, Alex Roche

Undergraduate Review

The purpose of this research was to create a computer code that would numerically test a Poisson equation relating the mass distribution of a lens galaxy cluster to weak gravitational shear. Einstein’s theory of general relativity predicts that space-time is bent by massive objects, and in weak gravitational lensing, galaxy clusters act as lenses. The observable result is that galaxies far behind the gravitational lens will appear slightly more elliptical than they actually are. The ellipticity of the background galaxies is quantifiable and is directly related to the weak gravitational shear, and the shear is used to determine the mass …