Abstract
Wave dark matter, a novel model for dark matter, is composed of ultra-light bosons, capable of explaining the observed large-scale structure of the Universe and is a serious contender to the conventional cold dark matter paradigm. The quantum interference within the bosons leads to an intricate granular sub-structure, and what effect could this have on gravitational lensing observations? In my research, I predict the consequences of this granulation by using supercomputer simulations. The simulation results are then compared with typical smooth lens models that observers would make to explain the observational data. My results show that the granulations in wave dark matter are capable of significantly altering the flux and position of lensed images in a multiply imaged quasar by a foreground galaxy. The regions of infinite magnification (critical curves) are significantly corrugated due to the perturbations caused by the granulations, resulting in drastic changes to lensed images. The effect of these unique granulations could resolve the long-standing quasar flux anomaly problem, as well as the novel positional anomalies seen in high resolution lensing observations, both of which the standard smooth CDM models struggle to explain.
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