We estimated the optical depth and event rate of μas level astrometric microlensing for the stars outside our galaxy caused by MACHOs. For the stars in the LMC and the SMC, the optical depth of a 1 μas detection threshold is on the order of 10–1 and the event rate of the induced proper motion of 1 μas/year is on the order of 10–3/yr with the event duration of around a hundred years. They depend on the distribution of lenses and sources. This poses a constraint on the expected probability of photometric self-lensing in LMC and SMC.

I have calculated astrometrical trajectories of microlensing phenomena caused by a spherical finite-size lens consisting of opaque material. For details, see Takahashi (2003).

We propose a method for directly detecting MASsive Compact Objects (MASCOs) in extragalactic halos, using VLBI techniques with extremely high resolution ˜ 0.01 milli-arcsec. If a galactic halo comprising a large number of MASCOs produces multiple images of a background radio-loud QSO by gravitational lensing, then a high-resolution radio map of each macro-lensed image should reveal microlensing effects by MASCOs. Based on the size, position, and magnified or demagnified patterns of images, we shall be able to determine the mass and density profile of an individual MASCO as well as its spatial distribution and abundance in a galactic halo.

Currently, the CDM scenario has met a crisis that the number of substructures presented by cosmological N-body simulations based on the scenario is much larger than the observed amount. If such substructures do not really exist, it must be an actual crisis for the CDM scenario. in contrast, if the reason for the overproduction of substructures in simulations is some observational bias, and many substructures are invisible or not detectable due to very low star formation efficiency by some feedback processes (e.g., Nishi & Susa 1999), the CDM scenario will survive. Thus, it is crucial for the resolution of this crisis to discriminate between these two possibilities.

Recent development of the structure formation theory based on the cold dark matter scenario implies that a number of larger separation lensed quasars, for which a confirmed detection has not yet been achieved, will be observed in the ongoing large-scale surveys such as the 2dF survey and SDSS. We show that statistics of such large separation lenses can be a powerful probe of the density profile of dark halos. After we summarize the current status of the lens surveys in the 2dF and SDSS, we focus our discussion on what information can be extracted from these lens surveys. in addition, we also propose statistics of differential time delays between multiple images as an alternative probe of the density profile of dark halos.

Using the 100k data release of the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey (2dFGRS), we obtain mass-to-light ratios for isolated “host” galaxies via the dynamics of satellite galaxies which orbit about them. Distinct differences are seen in the dependence of M/L on host luminosity for early-type vs. late-type hosts.

X-ray observations with Chandra and XMM are providing valuable new measurements of the dark matter content of elliptical galaxies and galaxy clusters. I review constraints on the radial density profiles and ellipticities of the dark matter in these systems (with an emphasis on clusters) obtained from recent X-ray observations and discuss their implications, especially for the self-interacting dark matter model.

We describe the first results from two observational projects aimed at measuring the amount and spatial distribution of dark matter in distant early-type galaxies (E/S0s) and clusters of galaxies. At the galaxy scale, the Lenses Structure and Dynamics (LSD) Survey is gathering kinematic data for distant (up to z ⋐ 1) E/S0s that are gravitational lenses. A joint lensing and dynamical analysis constrains the fraction of dark matter within the Einstein radius, the mass-to-light ratio of the stellar component, and the total slope of the mass density profile. These properties and their evolution with redshift are briefly discussed in terms of the formation and evolution of E/S0 galaxies and measurement of the Hubble Constant from gravitational time delay systems. At the cluster scale – after careful removal of the stellar component with a joint lensing and dynamical analysis – systems with giant radial arcs can be used to measure precisely the inner slope of the dark matter halo. An HST search for radial arcs and the analysis of a first sample are briefly discussed in terms of the universal dark matter halos predicted by CDM simulations.

Planetary nebulae (PNe) may be the most promising tracers in the halos of early-type galaxies. We have used multi-object spectrographs on the WHT and the VLT, and the new Planetary Nebula Spectrograph on the WHT, to obtain hundreds of PN velocities in a small sample of nearby galaxies. These ellipticals show weak halo rotation, which may be consistent with ab initio models of galaxy formation, but not with more detailed major merger simulations. the galaxies near L* show evidence of a universal declining velocity dispersion profile, and dynamical models indicate the presence of little dark matter within 5 Reff—implying halos either not as massive or not as centrally concentrated as CDM predicts.

A new instrument is providing crucial data with which to probe the structure of dark halos in elliptical galaxies

We have found a correlation between the M / L global gradients and the structural parameters of the luminous components of a sample of 19 early-type galaxies. Such a correlation supports the hypothesis that there is a connection between the dark matter content and the evolution of the baryonic component in such systems.

We describe an ongoing program to study the halo kinematics of a broad sample of early-type galaxies using integrated light measurements obtained with the Hobby-Eberly and Gemini Telescopes.

We investigate the properties of the dark halo of the dust-lane elliptical galaxy NGC 3108. This galaxy contains a large massive gaseous disk, which shows rapid and regular rotation. That makes NGC 3108 a target for measurements usually feasible only for spriral galaxies. Combining spectroscopic measurements of the disk in the optical- and the radio regime, we provide a reliable rotation curve of the galaxy out to 3 Reff and show that the rotation curve does not decline up to a radius of 5.5 Reff corresponding to 28 kpc.

We have developed a method to construct realistic triaxial dynamical models for elliptical galaxies, allowing us to derive best-fitting parameters, such as the mass-to-light ratio and the black hole mass, and to study the orbital structure. We use triaxial theoretical Abel models to investigate the robustness of the method.

An elongated ERO with R - K′ = 7.5 behind the cluster A851 at z=0.4 was found to lie at z = 1.5 both by the photometric redshift and by a cross correlation method of its H-band SED with local E/SO spectra. the luminosity profile is well represented by a seeing convolved exponential disk, and the lack of redshifted H-alpha emission indicates that it has a dynamically relaxed disk with an old stellar population. Gravitational lensing of the cluster is not strong enough to stretch the image and cannot convert the de Vaucouleurs law into an exponential law.

Centaurus A is the closest active radio galaxy at a distance of around 3.5 Mpc. New 1.2 mm imaging performed with SIMBA at the Swedish ESO Submillimetre Telescope (SEST) in Chile gives an insight into the distribution of thermal and non-thermal emission. Apart from extended synchrotron emission in the radio lobes we have detected the unresolved AGN core and the characteristic dust lane.

We argue that the recently reported anisotropy of the local velocity field is in good agreement with other cosmic anisotropies and they are all explainable by the Great Attractor.

2MASS has provided a three-dimensional map of the > 360°, wrapped tidal tails of the Sagittarius (Sgr) dwarf spheroidal galaxy, as traced by M giant stars. With the inclusion of radial velocity data for stars along these tails, strong constraints exist for dynamical models of the Milky Way-Sgr interaction. N-body simulations of Sgr disruption with model parameters spanning a range of initial conditions (e.g., Sgr mass and orbit, Galactic rotation curve, halo flattening) are used to find parameterizations that match almost every extant observational constraint of the Sgr system. We discuss the implications of the Sgr data and models for the orbit, mass and M/L of the Sgr bound core as well as the strength, flattening, and lumpiness of the Milky Way potential.

We present a new estimate of the mass of the Milky Way, making use of a large sample of 955 field horizontal-branch (FHB) stars from the Early Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. This sample of stars has been classified on the basis of an automated analysis approach, in combination with other methods, in order to obtain estimates of the physical parameters of the stars, i.e., Teff, log g, [Fe/H], and should be relatively free of contamination from halo blue stragglers. the stars all have measured radial velocities and photometric distance estimates, and the sample includes objects as distant as ~ 75 kpc from the Galactic center. Application of a Bayesian likelihood method, for a specific model of the Galaxy, indicates that the total mass of the Galaxy lies in the range 1.5 − 4.0 × 1012 M⊙. Our sample appears to reveal a clear signature of a dual halo population of FHB stars, with the boundary between the inner and outer halo around 20 kpc, and the possibility of rather striking differences in the rotational properties of the Galaxy at low metallicity.

Using parallaxes and proper motions of a kinematically and spatially unbiased sample of old bright red giant stars from the Hipparcos catalog with measured radial velocities from Barbier-Brossat & Figon (2000), we have re-estimated the surface density of the Galactic disk in the solar neighbourhood within ±0.4 kpc of the Sun. We determine the vertical distribution of the red giants as well as the vertical velocity dispersion of the sample, (14.4±0.26 km/sec), and combine these to derive the surface density of gravitating matter in the Galactic disk. Using these data, we determine the surface density of the galactic disk as a function of the galactic coordinate, z. the surface density of the disk increases from 10.5 ±0.5 M⊙within ±50 pc to 42 ±6 M⊙/pc2 within ±350 pc. The volume density of the galactic disk within ±50 pc is 0.105±0.005 M⊙/pc3, which is only marginally greater (within 2 sigma) than the volume density estimates of observed baryonic matter in the solar neighbourhood.