Speaker
Description
The systematic search for gravitational lens systems on milli-arcsecond (mas) scales (milli-lenses) is the primary goal of the SMILE project (https://smilescience.info/). It will improve constraints on the number density of supermassive compact objects (SMCOs) in the universe by an order of magnitude compared to previous studies. These SMCOs potentially act as gravitational lenses for compact background AGN, making the otherwise dark lenses detectable. In turn, the study can constrain the abundance of compact, sub-galactic dark matter (DM) halos, possibly ruling out certain DM models.
Our study will be conducted by analyzing ~5,000 sources with very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) on mas-scales, based on the cosmic lens all sky survey (CLASS) with the VLA. Several tests will be applied to confirm or reject milli-lens candidates. If a system passes all our initial tests, ARGOS could possibly provide important additional constraints for these candidates.
In this talk, I will explain the scope of the project, the tests we are going to use to discriminate milli-lens systems, and show some preliminary results of a pilot search we have conducted. Then, I will go into the possible synergies with ARGOS.
