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Article Contents

ABSTRACT

1.INTRODUCTION

2. BASIC CONCEPTS OF GRAVITATIONAL LENSING

2.1. The Thin Gravitational Lens

2.2. Caustics and Formation of Arcs

2.3. The Singular Isothermal Sphere (SIS)

2.4. The Non Singular Squeezed Isothermal Potential

3.OBSERVATION OF ARCS

3.1. Imaging and Photometry of Arcs

3.2. Spectroscopy of Arcs

4. ARC(LET)S AS A PROBE OF DARK MATTER

4.1. Large Arcs and Central Potential

4.2. The Dark Matter Distribution from Giant Arcs

4.3. The Gravitationally Lensed Pairs

4.4. The Weak Distortion Regime

4.5.Microstructures in Arcs and Minilensing by Small Dark Halos

4.6. Occurrence of Arcs and Evolution of Clusters

4.7. Optical Rings

4.8. Towards Probing the Mass Spectrum of Gravitational Structures With Weak Lensing

4.8.1.Mapping Large Scale Structures

4.8.2. Weak Shear and Amplification Bias Near Radiosources

5.GRAVITATIONALLY LENSED IMAGES AND THE EVOLUTION OF GALAXIES

5.1. Giant Arcs

5.2. Distance of Faint Arclets

6. COSMOGRAPHY

7. FUTURE OUTLOOK

REFERENCES