We are an independent Lise Meitner research group within the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics.
We make use of the effect of strong gravitational lensing to answer long-standing astrophysical questions. Our approach combines the development of lens modelling codes and high-angular resolution data from optical imaging and radio/mm/sub-mm interferometric observations.
ERC-funded project focused on the analysis of VLBI observations in total intensity and polarisation.
Max Planck research group dedicated to the study of dark matter and the kinematics of high-redshift lensed galaxies.
A panchromatic program that aims at collecting a large sample of galaxy-scale gravitational lens systems observed with high angular resolution using state-of-the-art observing facilities such as HST, Keck adaptive optics, global VLBI and ALMA.
We are interested in the development of high-precision lens modelling codes for the analysis of high-angular resolution data from optical imaging and radio interferometry.
Simona Vegetti is a Lise Meitner Research Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics (MPA). She obtained her degree from the University of Turin in 2005 and her PhD from the University of Groningen in 2010. During her doctoral research at the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, she developed a Bayesian gravitational lens–modelling technique for detecting dark matter substructures, now known as gravitational imaging. From 2010 to 2012, she was a Pappalardo Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she reported the first gravitational imaging detection of a very low-mass dark matter halo at high redshift. She joined MPA in 2013 as a postdoctoral fellow and subsequently became a Max Planck Research Group Leader, a position she held until 2020. At MPA, she consolidated her research programme on dark matter while broadening her interests to include galaxy evolution and cosmic magnetism. In 2018, she was awarded an ERC Starting Grant. She is a founding member of the SHARP collaboration and a member of the Euclid Strong Lensing Working Group. A full list of her publications can be found on ADS.