Probing the Cosmos with Strong Gravitational Lensing

• Project/Area Number: 24K07089
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 16010:Astronomy-related
• Research Institution: The University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: Wong Kenneth 東京大学, 大学院理学系研究科(理学部), 特任助教 (00794207)
• Project Period (FY): 2024-04-01 – 2029-03-31
• Project Status: Granted (Fiscal Year 2024)
• Budget Amount: ¥4,550,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,050,000); Fiscal Year 2028: ¥780,000 (Direct Cost: ¥600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥180,000); Fiscal Year 2027: ¥780,000 (Direct Cost: ¥600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥180,000); Fiscal Year 2026: ¥780,000 (Direct Cost: ¥600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥180,000); Fiscal Year 2025: ¥780,000 (Direct Cost: ¥600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥180,000); Fiscal Year 2024: ¥1,430,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥330,000)
• Keywords: cosmology / gravitational lensing

Outline of Research at the Start

My research involves strong gravitational lensing, a phenomenon where the gravity of a massive galaxy creates multiple images of a background object, to measure the expansion rate of the Universe. Gravitational lensing provides an independent measurement of this expansion rate, and thus is a crucial test of the current discrepancy between early and late-Universe measurements, which may lead to new physics. Lenses are rare, so discovering new systems in large datasets using techniques such as machine learning can be used to efficiently search for them.