Canary Islands Winter School of Astrophysics XXIV

Astrophysical Applications of Gravitational Lensing.

The XXIV Canary Islands Winter School of Astrophysics, organized by the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC), focuses on the application of gravitational lenses in Astrophysics and Cosmology. The WS welcomes a maximum of 60 PhD students and young Post-Docs, and provides a unique opportunity for the participants to broaden their knowledge in this key field of Astronomy.

Scientific Rationale

Astrophysical objects like planets, stars, galaxies and even larger structures bend the light coming from background sources. This phenomenon, known as Gravitational Lensing,has become an essential tool for studies in numerous astrophysical scenarios on all scales, from cosmology to exoplanets. Since the curvature of light rays increases with the mass, gravitational lenses are unique to map and analyze the distribution of mass in a Universe in which virtually all matter is still of unknown nature. Over the last years the utilization of Gravitational Lensing has improved significantly our knowledge on many fields as galaxy and galaxy cluster structure, dark matter, interstellar medium, quasar accretion disks, extrasolar planets, etc.

The primary aim of the XXIV Winter School has been to provide a wide-ranging and up-to-date overview of different aspects of gravitational lensing and its application to several fields of Astrophysics (Dark Matter, Galaxies structure, Quasar accretion disks, Exoplanets, etc) and Cosmology. The School was particularly designed to introduce young researchers to the use of gravitational lenses as a tool in their current work.

More information at: XXIV Canary Islands Winter School of Astrophysics