Sjur Refsdal

Sjur Refsdal (30 December 1935 – 29 January 2009) was a Norwegian astrophysicist, born in Oslo. He is best known for his pioneer work on gravitational lensing, including the Chang-Refsdal lens.

Sjur Refsdal, Cambridge, UK, 1987

Biography

In 1970 he earned a doctorate at the Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics, University of Oslo. Later that year he became professor in astrophysics at the Hamburg Observatory[1] in Germany, and remained in that position until he retired in 2001.

In 1964 and 1966 he published a series of articles on the effects and possible applications of gravitational lenses.[2] He is particularly known for the "Refsdal Method", which describes how one may estimate the expansion rate of the Universe (Hubble constant) using the measured time-delay and lens properties of a gravitationally lensed Supernova (SN).[3] This method was applied for the first time in 2018,[4] with the homonymous SN Refsdal. He later started work on stellar evolution, but returned to gravitational lensing shortly before the first detection of a gravitational lens, dubbed the Twin Quasar.

He was a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Emeritus at the Institute for theoretical Astrophysics at the University of Oslo.[5] On 1 February 2005 he was awarded the King's Medal of Merit in gold.

The first detected multiply-lensed supernova was nicknamed "SN Refsdal" in his honor.[6][7]

References
  1. Obituary, Hamburg Observatory
  2. P. Schneider, J. Ehlers, E.E. Falco, Gravitational Lenses, Springer-Verlag, Berlin 1999. Chapter The period 1963-1979 at Google Books
  3. Sjur Refsdal (1964). "On the possibility of determining Hubble's parameter and the masses of galaxies from the gravitational lens effect". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 128 (4): 307–310. Bibcode:1964MNRAS.128..307R. doi:10.1093/mnras/128.4.307.
  4. Vega-Ferrero (2018). "The Hubble Constant from SN Refsdal". The Astrophysical Journal. 31 (853): L31. arXiv:1712.05800. Bibcode:2018ApJ...853L..31V. doi:10.3847/2041-8213/aaa95f. S2CID 119483238.
  5. Obituary Archived 2009-03-03 at the Wayback Machine, Institutt for Teoretisk Astrofysikk, 2. February 2009
  6. Kelly, P. L.; et al. (2015). "Multiple images of a highly magnified supernova formed by an early-type cluster galaxy lens". Science. 347 (6226): 1123–1126. arXiv:1411.6009. Bibcode:2015Sci...347.1123K. doi:10.1126/science.aaa3350. PMID 25745167. S2CID 206633888.
  7. Overbye, Dennis (March 5, 2015). "Astronomers Observe Supernova and Find They're Watching Reruns". New York Times. Retrieved March 5, 2015.
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