Gravitational lensing in cosmology

Gravitational lensing is a unique and direct probe of mass in the universe. It depends only on the law of gravity and does not depend on the dynamical state nor the composition of matter. Thus, it is used to study the distribution of the dark matter in the lensing object. Combined with the traditional observations such as optical and X-ray, it gives us useful informations of the structure formation in the universe. The lensing observables depend also on the global geometry as well as large scale structure of the universe. Therefore it is possible to withdraw useful constraints on the cosmological parameters once the distribution of lensing mass is accurately known. Since the first discovery of the lensing event by a galaxy in 1979, various kinds of lensing phenomena caused by star, galaxy, cluster of galaxies and large scale structure have been observed and are used to study mass distribution in various scales and cosmology. Thus, the gravitational lensing is now regarded as an indispensable research field in the observational cosmology. In this paper, we give an instructive introduction to gravitational lensing and its applications to cosmology.