Time-delay cosmography: increased leverage with angular diameter distances

Abstract

Strong lensing time-delay systems constrain cosmological parameters via the so-called time-delay distance and the angular diameter distance to the lens. In previous studies, only the former information was used in forecasting cosmographic constraints. In this paper, we show that the cosmological constraints improve significantly when the latter information is also included. Specifically, the angular diameter distance plays a crucial role in breaking the degeneracy between the curvature of the Universe and the time-varying equation of state of dark energy. Using a mock sample of 55 bright quadruple lens systems based on expectations for ongoing/future imaging surveys, we find that adding the angular diameter distance information to the time-delay distance information and the Planck's measurements of the cosmic microwave background anisotropies improves the constraint on the constant equation of state by 30%, on the time variation in the equation of state by a factor of two, and on the Hubble constant in the flat ΛCDM model by a factor of two. Therefore, previous forecasts for the statistical power of time-delay systems were overly pessimistic, i.e., time-delay systems are more powerful than previously appreciated.