Gravitational Lensing Observations Research Articles

Cosmology Today

We seem to live in a simple but strange universe. Our basic cosmological model fits a host of astronomical observations with only five basic parameters: the age of the universe, the density of atoms, the density of matter, the initial “lumpiness” of the universe, and a parameter that describes whether this lumpiness is more pronounced on smaller physical scales. Our observations of the cosmic microwave background fluctuations determine these parameters with uncertainties of only 1 to 2 percent. The same model also provides an excellent fit to the large-scale clustering of galaxies and gas, the properties of galaxy clusters, observations of gravitational lensing, and supernova-based measurements of the Hubble relation. This model implies that we live in a strange universe: atoms make up only 4 percent of the visible universe, dark matter makes up 24 percent, and dark energy – energy associated with empty space – makes up 72 percent.

Intrinsic alignments of group and cluster galaxies in photometric surveys

Intrinsic alignments of galaxies have been shown to contaminate weak gravitational lensing observables on linear scales, r > 10 h−1 Mpc, but studies of alignments in the non-linear regime have thus far been inconclusive. We present an estimator for extracting the intrinsic alignment signal of galaxies around stacked clusters of galaxies from multiband imaging data. Our estimator removes the contamination caused by galaxies that are gravitationally lensed by the clusters and scattered in redshift space due to photometric redshift uncertainties. It uses posterior probability distributions for the redshifts of the galaxies in the sample and it is easily extended to obtain the weak gravitational lensing signal while removing the intrinsic alignment contamination. We apply this algorithm to groups and clusters of galaxies identified in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey ‘Stripe 82’ co-added imaging data over ∼150 deg2. We find that the intrinsic alignment signal around stacked clusters in the redshift range 0.1 < z < 0.4 is consistent with zero. In terms of the tidal alignment model of Catelan et al., we set joint constraints on the strength of the alignment and the bias of the lensing groups and clusters on scales between 0.1 and 10 h−1 Mpc, |$b_{\rm L}C_1\rho _{\rm crit} = -2_{-14}^{+14} \times 10^{-4}$|⁠. This constrains the contamination fraction of alignment to lensing signal to the range between [ − 18, 23] per cent below scales of 1 h−1 Mpc at 95 per cent confidence level, and this result depends on our photometric redshift quality and selection criteria used to identify background galaxies. Our results are robust to the choice of photometric band in which the shapes are measured (i and r) and to centring on the Brightest Cluster Galaxy or on the geometrical centre of the clusters.

Towards noiseless gravitational lensing simulations

The microphysical properties of the DM particle can, in principle, be constrained by the properties and abundance of substructures in DM halos, as measured through strong gravitational lensing. Unfortunately, there is a lack of accurate theoretical predictions for the lensing signal of substructures, mainly because of the discreteness noise inherent to N-body simulations. Here we present Recursive-TCM, a method that is able to provide lensing predictions with an arbitrarily low discreteness noise, without any free parameters or smoothing scale. This solution is based on a novel way of interpreting the results of N-body simulations, where particles simply trace the evolution and distortion of Lagrangian phase-space volume elements. We discuss the advantages of this method over the widely used cloud-in-cells and adaptive-kernel smoothing density estimators. Applying the new method to a cluster-sized DM halo simulated in warm and cold DM scenarios, we show how the expected differences in their substructure population translate into differences in the convergence and magnification maps. We anticipate that our method will provide the high-precision theoretical predictions required to interpret and fully exploit strong gravitational lensing observations.

On the interpretive role of theories of gravity and ‘ugly’ solutions to the total evidence for dark matter

Peter Kosso (2013) discusses the weak gravitational lensing observations of the Bullet Cluster and argues that dark matter can be detected in this system solely through the equivalence principle without the need to specify a full theory of gravity. This paper argues that Kosso gets some of the details wrong in his analysis of the implications of the Bullet Cluster observations for the Dark Matter Double Bind and the possibility of constructing robust tests of theories of gravity at galactic and greater scales. Even the Bullet Cluster evidence is not sufficiently detailed to allow precision tests of General Relativity that would distinguish it from its rivals at galactic and greater scales. Taking into account the total evidence available, we cannot rule out “ugly” solutions to the dynamical discrepancy in astrophysics that involve both a large quantity of dark matter and a theory of gravity whose predictions differ significantly from those of General Relativity for interactions taking place at galactic and greater scales.

WEIGHING GALAXY CLUSTERS WITH GAS. II. ON THE ORIGIN OF HYDROSTATIC MASS BIAS IN ΛCDM GALAXY CLUSTERS

The use of galaxy clusters as cosmological probes hinges on our ability to measure their masses accurately and with high precision. Hydrostatic mass is one of the most common methods for estimating the masses of individual galaxy clusters, which suffer from biases due to departures from hydrostatic equilibrium. Using a large, mass-limited sample of massive galaxy clusters from a high-resolution hydrodynamical cosmological simulation, in this work we show that in addition to turbulent and bulk gas velocities, acceleration of gas introduces biases in the hydrostatic mass estimate of galaxy clusters. In unrelaxed clusters, the acceleration bias is comparable to the bias due to non-thermal pressure associated with merger-induced turbulent and bulk gas motions. In relaxed clusters, the mean mass bias due to acceleration is small (<3%), but the scatter in the mass bias can be reduced by accounting for gas acceleration. Additionally, this acceleration bias is greater in the outskirts of higher redshift clusters where mergers are more frequent and clusters are accreting more rapidly. Since gas acceleration cannot be observed directly, it introduces an irreducible bias for hydrostatic mass estimates. This acceleration bias places limits on how well we can recover cluster masses from future X-ray and microwave observations. We discuss implications for cluster mass estimates based on X-ray, Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect, and gravitational lensing observations and their impact on cluster cosmology.

Cosmological information in the intrinsic alignments of luminous red galaxies

The intrinsic alignments of galaxies are usually regarded as a contaminant to weak gravitational lensing observables. The alignment of Luminous Red Galaxies, detected unambiguously in observations from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, can be reproduced by the linear tidal alignment model of Catelan, Kamionkowski & Blandford (2001) on large scales. In this work, we explore the cosmological information encoded in the intrinsic alignments of red galaxies. We make forecasts for the ability of current and future spectroscopic surveys to constrain local primordial non-Gaussianity and Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) in the cross-correlation function of intrinsic alignments and the galaxy density field. For the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey, we find that the BAO signal in the intrinsic alignments is marginally significant with a signal-to-noise ratio of 1.8 and 2.2 with the current LOWZ and CMASS samples of galaxies, respectively, and increasing to 2.3 and 2.7 once the survey is completed. For the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument and for a spectroscopic survey following the EUCLID redshift selection function, we find signal-to-noise ratios of 12 and 15, respectively. Local type primordial non-Gaussianity, parametrized by fNL = 10, is only marginally significant in the intrinsic alignments signal with signal-to-noise ratios < 2 for the three surveys considered.

Modelling colour-dependent galaxy clustering in cosmological simulations

We extend the subhalo abundance matching method to assign galaxy colour to subhaloes. We separate a luminosity-binned subhalo sample into two groups by a secondary subhalo property which is presumed to be correlated with galaxy colour. The two subsamples then represent red and blue galaxy populations. We explore two models for the secondary property, namely subhalo assembly time and local dark matter density around each subhalo. The model predictions for the galaxy two-point correlation functions are compared with the recent results from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We show that the observed colour dependence of galaxy clustering can be reproduced well by our method applied to cosmological N-body simulations without baryonic processes. We then compare the model predictions for the colour-dependent galaxy-mass cross-correlation functions with the results from gravitational lensing observations. The comparison allows us to distinguish the models, and also to discuss what subhalo property should be used to assign colour to subhaloes accurately. We show that the extended abundance matching method using the local dark matter density as a colour proxy provides an accurate description of the galaxy populations in the local universe. We also study impacts of scatter on the local dark matter density–colour relations. Introducing scatter improves agreements of our model predictions with the observed red and blue galaxy clustering and is needed to explain observed correlation functions in finer colour bins. Finally, we study red galaxy fraction profiles in galaxy group- and cluster-sized haloes and find that the red fraction profiles have a relatively strong dependence on our model parameters. We argue that the red fraction profiles can be an important observational clue, in addition to galaxy clustering and galaxy–galaxy lensing, to explore the galaxy–(sub)halo connections.

Initial Results from a Laboratory Emulation of Weak Gravitational Lensing Measurements

Weak gravitational lensing observations are a key science driver for the NASA Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST). To validate the performance of the WFIRST infrared detectors, we have performed a laboratory emulation of weak gravitational lensing measurements. Our experiments used a custom precision projector system to image a target mask composed of a grid of pinholes, emulating stellar point sources, onto a 1.7 μm cut-off Teledyne HgCdTe/H2RG detector. We used a 0.88 μm LED illumination source and f/22 pupil stop to produce undersampled point spread functions similar to those expected from WFIRST. We also emulated the WFIRST image reconstruction strategy, using the image combination (IMCOM) algorithm to derive oversampled images from dithered, undersampled input images. We created shear maps for this data and computed shear correlation functions to mimic a real weak lensing analysis. After removing only second-order polynomial fits to the shear maps, we found that the correlation functions could be reduced to O(10-6). This places a conservative upper limit on the detector-induced bias to the correlation function (under our test conditions). This bias is two orders of magnitude lower than the expected weak lensing signal. Restricted to scales relevant to dark energy analyses (sky separations >0.5′), the bias is O(10-7)—comparable to the requirement for future weak lensing missions to avoid biasing cosmological parameter estimates. Our experiment will need to be upgraded and repeated under different configurations to fully characterize the shape measurement performance of WFIRST IR detectors.

Gravitational lensing with f (χ) = χ3/2 gravity in accordance with astrophysical observations

In this article we perform a second order perturbation analysis of the gravitational metric theory of gravity $ f(\chi) = \chi^{3/2} $ developed by Bernal et al. (2011). We show that the theory accounts in detail for two observational facts: (1) the phenomenology of flattened rotation curves associated to the Tully-Fisher relation observed in spiral galaxies, and (2) the details of observations of gravitational lensing in galaxies and groups of galaxies, without the need of any dark matter. We show how all dynamical observations on flat rotation curves and gravitational lensing can be synthesised in terms of the empirically required metric coefficients of any metric theory of gravity. We construct the corresponding metric components for the theory presented at second order in perturbation, which are shown to be perfectly compatible with the empirically derived ones. It is also shown that under the theory being presented, in order to obtain a complete full agreement with the observational results, a specific signature of Riemann's tensor has to be chosen. This signature corresponds to the one most widely used nowadays in relativity theory. Also, a computational program, the MEXICAS (Metric EXtended-gravity Incorporated through a Computer Algebraic System) code, developed for its usage in the Computer Algebraic System (CAS) Maxima for working out perturbations on a metric theory of gravity, is presented and made publicly available.

On mass and shape of galaxy clusters by comparison of X‐ray, Sunyaev‐Zel'dovich effect, and gravitational lensing observations

AbstractThe accurate determination of the mass of galaxy clusters is crucial to precision astronomy. We have often to deal with either biased measurements or precise determinations of peculiar quantities. A better understanding of intrinsic shapes plays a major role. We consider how the shape of the intracluster medium (ICM) can be inferred by combining X‐ray photometry and spectroscopy with the measurement of the Sunyaev‐Zel'dovich effect (SZe). Together with gravitational lensing (GL), we can get unbiased estimates of mass and concentration and probe the hydrodynamical properties of the cluster. (© 2013 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH &amp; Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

Outskirts of Galaxy Clusters

Until recently, only about 10% of the total intracluster gas volume had been studied with high accuracy, leaving a vast region essentially unexplored. This is now changing and a wide area of hot gas physics and chemistry awaits discovery in galaxy cluster outskirts. Also, robust large-scale total mass profiles and maps are within reach. First observational and theoretical results in this emerging field have been achieved in recent years with sometimes surprising findings. Here, we summarize and illustrate the relevant underlying physical and chemical processes and review the recent progress in X-ray, Sunyaev--Zel'dovich, and weak gravitational lensing observations of cluster outskirts, including also brief discussions of technical challenges and possible future improvements.

Strong gravitational lensing by a rotating non-Kerr compact object

We study the strong gravitational lensing in the background of a rotating non-Kerr compact object with a deformed parameter $\epsilon$ and an unbound rotation parameter $a$. We find that the photon sphere radius and the deflection angle depend sharply on the parameters $\epsilon$ and $a$. For the case in which the black hole is more prolate than a Kerr black hole, the photon sphere exists only in the regime $\epsilon\leq\epsilon_{max}$ for prograde photon. The upper limit $\epsilon_{max}$ is a function of the rotation parameter $a$. As $\epsilon>\epsilon_{max}$, the deflection angle of the light ray closing very to the naked singularity is a positive finite value, which is different from those in both the usual Kerr black hole spacetime and in the rotating naked singularity described by Janis-Newman-Winicour metric. For the oblate black hole and the retrograde photon, there does not exist such a threshold value. Modelling the supermassive central object of the Galaxy as a rotating non-Kerr compact object, we estimated the numerical values of the coefficients and observables for gravitational lensing in the strong field limit.

Constraining photon mass by energy-dependent gravitational light bending

In the standard model of particle physics, photons are massless particles with a particular dispersion relation. Tests of this claim at different scales are both interesting and important. Experiments in territory labs and several exterritorial tests have put some upper limits on photon mass, e.g., torsion balance experiment in the lab shows that photon mass should be smaller than 1.2 × 10−51g. In this work, this claim is tested at a cosmological scale by looking at strong gravitational lensing data available and an upper limit of 8.71 × 10−39g on photon mass is given. Observations of energy-dependent gravitational lensing with not yet available higher accuracy astrometry instruments may constrain photon mass better.

MATTER DISTRIBUTION AROUND GALAXIES

We explore the mass distribution of material associated with galaxies from the observation of gravitational weak lensing for the galaxy mass correlation function with the aid of $N$-body simulations of dark matter. The latter is employed to unfold various contributions that contribute to the integrated line of sight mass density. We conclude that galaxies have no definite edges of the matter distribution, extending to the middle to neighbouring galaxies with the density profile roughly $r^{-2.4}$ beyond the virial radius. The mass distributed beyond the virial radius (gravitationally bound radius) explains the gap seen in the mass density estimates, the global value $\Omega_m\sim 0.27$ and typically $\Omega_{\rm gal} \sim 0.15$ from the luminosity density multiplied by the mass to light ratio. We suggest to use a physical method of gravitational lensing to characterise galaxy samples rather than characterise them with photometric means.

Probing spacetime noncommutative constant via charged astrophysical black hole lensing

We study the influence of the spacetime noncommutative parameter on the strong field gravitational lensing in the noncommutative Reissner-Nordstr\"{o}m black-hole spacetime. Supposing that the gravitational field of the supermassive central object of the Galaxy is described by this metric, we estimate the numerical values of the coefficients and observables for strong gravitational lensing. Our results show that with the increase of the parameter $\sqrt{\vartheta}$, the observables $\theta_{\infty}$ and $r_m$ decrease, while $s$ increases. Our results also show that i) if $\sqrt{\vartheta}$ is strong, the observables are close to those of the noncommutative Schwarzschild black hole lensing; ii) if $\sqrt{\vartheta}$ is weak, the observables are close to those of the commutative Reissner-Nordstr\"{o}m black hole lensing; iii) the detectable scope of $\vartheta$ in a noncommutative Reissner-Nordstr\"{o}m black hole lensing is $0.12\leq\sqrt{\vartheta}\leq0.26$, which is wider than that in a noncommutative Schwarzschild black hole lensing, $0.18\leq\sqrt{\vartheta}\leq0.26$. This may offer a way to probe the spacetime noncommutative constant $\vartheta$ by the astronomical instruments in the future.

Relationship between high-energy absorption cross section and strong gravitational lensing for black hole

In this paper, we obtain a relation between the high-energy absorption cross section and the strong gravitational lensing for a static and spherically symmetric black hole. It provides us a possible way to measure the high-energy absorption cross section for a black hole from strong gravitational lensing through astronomical observation. More importantly, it allows us to compute the total energy emission rate for high-energy particles emitted from the black hole acting as a gravitational lens. It could tell us the range of the frequency, among which the black hole emits the most of its energy and the gravitational waves are most likely to be observed. We also apply it to the Janis-Newman-Winicour solution. The results suggest that we can test the cosmic censorship hypothesis through the observation of gravitational lensing by the weakly naked singularities acting as gravitational lenses.

Strong gravitational lensing in a squashed Kaluza-Klein Gödel black hole

We investigate the strong gravitational lensing in a squashed Kaluza-Klein black hole immersed in the G\"{o}del universe with global rotation. Our result show that the strong gravitational lensing in the squashed Kaluza-Klein G\"{o}del black hole spacetime has some distinct behaviors from that in the Kerr case. In the squashed Kaluza-Klein G\"{o}del black hole spacetime, the photon sphere radius, the minimum impact parameter, the coefficient $\bar{a}$, $\bar{b}$ and the deflection angle $\alpha(\theta)$ in the $\phi$ direction are independent of whether the photon goes with or against the global rotation of the G\"{o}del Universe. While in the Kerr black hole, the values of these quantities for the prograde photons are different from those for the retrograde photons. Moreover, the coefficient of $\bar{b}$ increases with $j$ in the squashed Kaluza-Klein G\"{o}del black hole, but decreases with $a$ in the Kerr case. We also probe the influence of the squashed effect on the strong gravitational lensing in this black hole and find that in the extremely squashed case $\rho_0=0$, the coefficient $\bar{a}$ is a constant 1 and is independent of the global rotation of the G\"{o}del Universe. Furthermore, we assume that the gravitational field of the supermassive central object of the Galaxy can be described by this metric and estimate the numerical values of the coefficients and the main observables in the strong gravitational lensing.

Strong gravitational lensing in a noncommutative black-hole spacetime

Noncommutative geometry may be a starting point to a quantum gravity. We study the influence of the spacetime noncommutative parameter on the strong field gravitational lensing in the noncommutative Schwarzschild black-hole spacetime and obtain the angular position and magnification of the relativistic images. Supposing that the gravitational field of the supermassive central object of the galaxy described by this metric, we estimate the numerical values of the coefficients and observables for strong gravitational lensing. Comparing to the Reissner-Norstr\"{om} black hole, we find that the influences of the spacetime noncommutative parameter is similar to those of the charge, just these influences are much smaller. This may offer a way to distinguish a noncommutative black hole from a Reissner-Norstr\"{om} black hole, and may probe the spacetime noncommutative constant $\vartheta$ \cite{foot} by the astronomical instruments in the future.

A MICROLENSING MEASUREMENT OF DARK MATTER FRACTIONS IN THREE LENSING GALAXIES

Direct measurements of dark matter distributions in galaxies are currently only possible through the use of gravitational lensing observations. Combinations of lens modelling and stellar velocity dispersion measurements provide the best constraints on dark matter distributions in individual galaxies, however they can be quite complex. In this paper, we use observations and simulations of gravitational microlensing to measure the smooth (dark) matter mass fraction at the position of lensed images in three lens galaxies: MG 0414+0534, SDSS J0924+0219 and Q2237+0305. The first two systems consist of early-type lens galaxies, and both display a flux ratio anomaly in their close image pair. Anomalies such as these suggest a high smooth matter percentage is likely, and indeed we prefer ~50 per cent smooth matter in MG 0414+0534, and ~80 per cent in SDSS J0924+0219 at the projected locations of the lensed images. Q2237+0305 differs somewhat in that its lensed images lie in the central kiloparsec of the barred spiral lens galaxy, where we expect stars to dominate the mass distribution. In this system, we find a smooth matter percentage that is consistent with zero.

RECONSTRUCTING THE TRIAXIALITY OF THE GALAXY CLUSTER A1689: SOLVING THE X-RAY AND STRONG LENSING MASS DISCREPANCY

We present the first determination of the intrinsic triaxial shapes and tree-dimensional physical parameters of both dark matter (DM) and intra-cluster medium (ICM) for the galaxy cluster Abell 1689. We exploit the novel method we recently introduced (Morandi et al. 2010) in order to infer the tree-dimensional physical properties in triaxial galaxy clusters by combining jointly X-ray and strong lensing data. We find that Abell 1689 can be modeled as a triaxial galaxy cluster with DM halo axial ratios 1.24 +/- 0.13 and 2.37 +/- 0.11 on the plane of the sky and along the line of sight, respectively. We show that accounting for the three-dimensional geometry allows to solve the discrepancy between the mass determined from X-ray and strong gravitational lensing observations. We also determined the inner slope of the DM density profile alpha: we measure alpha = 0.90 +/- 0.05 by accounting explicitly for the 3D structure for this cluster, a value which is close to the cold dark matter (CDM) predictions, while the standard spherical modeling leads to the biased value alpha = 1.16 +/- 0.04. Our findings dispel the potential inconsistencies arisen in the literature between the predictions of the CDM scenario and the observations, providing further evidences that support the CDM scenario.