UC Santa Cruz

Strong gravitational lensing is poised to become one of the strongest probes of cosmology. Though rare, strong lensing is highly sensitive to the geometry of the universe and the distribution of mass in foreground galaxies or clusters. While strong lensing has long been used to study distant magnified objects, the past decade has seen rapid progress in applying SL to novel studies of dark matter and dark energy. I provide a survey of these possibilities, with a focus on studies of dark matter in lensing galaxy clusters. I present the most rigorous constraint to date on Self-Interacting Dark Matter (SIDM) at cluster scales, combining strong lensing with resolved stellar kinematics in lens system MACS J0138-2155. Additionally, I discuss a powerful possibility for constraining the dark energy equation of state with strong lensing, a technique known as compound lens cosmography, and encouraging results with a remarkable lens system known as the Carousel Lens.