I'm an Assistant Research Scientist at the University of Michigan Department of Astronomy.

In the News:

Hubble Zooms in on a Magnified Galaxy (click to go to http://hubblesite.org)

Current Projects

Giant Arc Surveys in SDSS and RCS1-2
I am leading the SL modeling of cluster lenses from SDSS-GAS and RCS-GA.
In recent years our group at UofC has discovered hundreds of new cluster- and group-size gravitational lenses, in a thorough and statistically-meaningful survey. Some of these are homes for truly spectacular arcs. We aim to study the population of SL clusters via mass measurements using proxies different wavelengths (from Xray through the SZ effect); measure their mass distribution and abundance for cosmological studies; and analyze background galaxies that have been magnified by these clusters, providing the opportunity to study them in an unprecedented detail.

Publications:

Wuyts et al. (2010);

Koester et al. (2010);

Bayliss et al. (2010);

Gralla et al. (2010);

Rigby et al. (2011);

Poster presented at Monsters, Inc., SB conference;

Bayliss et al. (2011)

"Source Plane Reconstruction of The Bright Lensed Galaxy RCSGA 032727-132609", Sharon et al. (2012), ApJ, in press

In preparation:

Mass-metallicity relation in lensed galaxies, Wuyts et al. in prep

A spatially-resolved analysis of the spectrum of the giant arc RCS0327, Rigby et al. in prep

SDSS-GAS survey paper, Gladders et al. in prep

RCS-GA survey paper, Bayliss et al. in prep

[Limited access wiki page]

Past Projects

Lensing

Multiply imaged galaxies
behind the cluster and lensed quasar
SDSS J1004+4112

The lensing cluster Abell 1689.
Links to the paper and full resolution images
can be found here

SN rates in clusters

A Survey for Supernovae
in Massive High-Redshift Clusters
[project page]

Rates paper: Sharon et al. (2010)
[full-res | arXiv:1006.3757]

DTD paper [arXiv:1006.3376]

WOOTS - Wise Observatory Optical Transient Search

Rates paper: Supernovae in Low-Redshift Galaxy Clusters: the Type-Ia Supernova Rate, Sharon et al. (2007)

WOOTS SNe paper: Gal-Yam et al. (2008)

Theses --

Chapters from my PhD thesis, titled: "Evolution of Supernova Rates and Dark Matter In Clusters of Galaxies" are published as the following papers:

Sharon et al. (2007)

Sharon et al. (2010)

Maoz, Sharon & Gal-Yam (2010)

Sharon et al. (2005)

My MSc thesis: "SN Counts in Deep HST fields" [ps]