Workshop Purpose
The idea of this ISSI Workshop is to take stock of the considerable progress in our understanding of many aspects of strong gravitational lensing that has been made in the last decade. This became possible thanks to a wealth of observations from space and from the ground, through dedicated surveys or serendipitous discoveries, and through big steps forward in modelling and simulations.
The preliminary list of topics to be covered is:
1. Strong lensing in the abstract — hypothetical and limiting cases
2. Strong lensing in galaxy clusters
3. Integrating strong lensing and other methods for studying potentials
4. Strong lensing and micro-lensing of quasars
a) the micro lenses
b) the structure of quasars
5. Dark matter substructure in galaxies
6. Limits to the modelling and measurement of time delays
7. Strong lensing and micro-lensing of supernovae
a) the micro lenses
b) the structure of supernovae
8. Searching for lenses
9. Microcaustics near macrocaustics.
The principal aim of this ISSI Workshop on Strong Gravitational Lensing is the production of a book to be published in the Space Sciences Series of ISSI by Springer Verlag (see https://www.issibern.ch/publications/sssi.html ) and in parallel as a Topical Collection in Space Science Reviews. This book is NOT intended to be the proceedings of the workshop, but it will provide a coherent collection of in-depth papers informed by the presentations and discussions at the workshop. The book will give an overview of the current state of our subject and it is our ambition that it will become a reference book for a considerable period of time. Typically, such a book comprises 8 to 12 papers/chapters, each one authored by a group of participants (multiple authorship possible). All papers will be peer-reviewed and, in addition to their appearance in the book, will be published individually in the journal Space Science Reviews. We aim for a submission of the papers within about 2 months after the workshop. The journal issue and the book are expected to appear within 8-10 months after the workshop.