Gravitational Lenses as High-Resolution Telescopes

Understand

The inner regions of active galaxies host the most extreme and energetic phenomena in the universe including, relativistic jets, supermassive black hole binaries, and recoiling supermassive black holes.

• However, many of these sources cannot be resolved with direct observations.
• I review how strong gravitational lensing can be used to elucidate the structures of these sources from radio frequencies up to very high energy gamma rays.
• The deep gravitational potentials surrounding galaxies act as natural gravitational lenses.