Source Galaxies Research Articles

Weak lensing measurements of the APEX-SZ galaxy cluster sample

ABSTRACT We present a weak lensing analysis for galaxy clusters from the APEX-SZ survey. For 39 massive galaxy clusters that were observed via the Sunyaev–Zel’dovich effect (SZE) with the APEX telescope, we analyse deep optical imaging data from WFI(@2.2mMPG/ESO) and Suprime-Cam(@SUBARU) in three bands. The masses obtained in this study, including an X-ray selected sub-sample of 27 clusters, are optimized for and used in studies constraining the mass to observable scaling relations at fixed cosmology. A novel focus of our weak lensing analysis is the multicolour background selection to suppress effects of cosmic variance on the redshift distribution of source galaxies. We investigate the effects of cluster member contamination through galaxy density, shear profile, and recovered concentrations. We quantify the impact of variance in source redshift distribution on the mass estimate by studying nine sub-fields of the COSMOS survey for different cluster redshift and magnitude limits. We measure a standard deviation of ∼6 per cent on the mean angular diameter distance ratio for a cluster at z = 0.45 and shallow imaging data of R ≈ 23 mag. It falls to ∼1 per cent for deep, R = 26 mag, observations. This corresponds to 8.4 per cent and 1.4 per cent scatter in M200. Our background selection reduces this scatter by 20−40 per cent, depending on cluster redshift and imaging depth. We derived cluster masses with and without using a mass concentration relation and find consistent results, and concentrations consistent with the used mass–concentration relation.

Mock galaxy shape catalogues in the Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam Survey

Abstract We use the full-sky ray-tracing weak lensing simulations to generate 2268 mock catalogues for the Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) survey first-year shear catalogue. Our mock catalogues take into account various effects as in the real data: the survey footprints, inhomogeneous angular distribution of source galaxies, statistical uncertainties in photometric redshift (photo-z) estimate, variations in the lensing weight, and the statistical noise in galaxy shape measurements including both intrinsic shapes and the measurement errors. We then utilize our mock catalogues to evaluate statistical uncertainties expected in measurements of cosmic shear two-point correlations ξ± with tomographic redshift information for the HSC survey. We develop a quasi-analytical formula for the Gaussian sample variance properly taking into account the number of source pairs in the survey footprints. The standard Gaussian formula significantly overestimates or underestimates the mock results by 50 per cent level. We also show that different photo-z catalogues or the six disconnected fields, rather than a consecutive geometry, cause variations in the covariance by ${\sim } 5{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$. The mock catalogues enable us to study the chi-square distribution for ξ±. We find the wider distribution than that naively expected for the distribution with the degrees of freedom of data vector used. Finally, we propose a method to include non-zero multiplicative bias in mock shape catalogue and show that the non-zero multiplicative bias can change the effective shape noise in cosmic shear analyses. Our results suggest an importance of estimating an accurate form of the likelihood function (and therefore the covariance) for robust cosmological parameter inference from the precise measurements.

Magnification bias in the shear-ratio test: a viable mitigation strategy

Using the same lens galaxies, the ratios of tangential shears for different source galaxy redshifts is equal to the ratios of their corresponding angular-diameter distances. This is the so-called shear-ratio test (SRT) and it is valid when effects induced by the intervening large-scale structure (LSS) can be neglected. The dominant LSS effect is magnification bias which, on the one hand, induces an additional shear, and on the other hand, causes a magnification of the lens population. Our objective is to quantify the magnification bias for the SRT and show an easy-to-apply mitigation strategy that does not rely on additional observations. We use ray-tracing data through the Millennium simulation to measure the influence of magnification on the SRT and test our mitigation strategy. Using the SRT as a null-test we find deviations from zero up to 10% for a flux-limited sample of lens galaxies, which is a strong function of lens redshift and the lens-source line-of-sight separation. Using our mitigation strategy we can improve the null-test by a factor of ∼100.

Weak-lensing shear measurement with machine learning

Cosmic shear, that is weak gravitational lensing by the large-scale matter structure of the Universe, is a primary cosmological probe for several present and upcoming surveys investigating dark matter and dark energy, such as Euclid or WFIRST. The probe requires an extremely accurate measurement of the shapes of millions of galaxies based on imaging data. Crucially, the shear measurement must address and compensate for a range of interwoven nuisance effects related to the instrument optics and detector, noise in the images, unknown galaxy morphologies, colors, blending of sources, and selection effects. This paper explores the use of supervised machine learning as a tool to solve this inverse problem. We present a simple architecture that learns to regress shear point estimates and weights via shallow artificial neural networks. The networks are trained on simulations of the forward observing process, and take combinations of moments of the galaxy images as inputs. A challenging peculiarity of the shear measurement task, in terms of machine learning applications, is the combination of the noisiness of the input features and the requirements on the statistical accuracy of the inverse regression. To address this issue, the proposed training algorithm minimizes bias over multiple realizations of individual source galaxies, reducing the sensitivity to properties of the overall sample of source galaxies. Importantly, an observational selection function of these source galaxies can be straightforwardly taken into account via the weights. We first introduce key aspects of our approach using toy-model simulations, and then demonstrate its potential on images mimicking Euclid data. Finally, we analyze images from the GREAT3 challenge, obtaining competitively low multiplicative and additive shear biases despite the use of a simple training set. We conclude that the further development of suited machine learning approaches is of high interest to meet the stringent requirements on the shear measurement in current and future surveys. We make a demonstration implementation of our technique publicly available.

Image simulations for gravitational lensing withskylens

We present the latest version of the ray-tracing simulation code Skylens, which can be used to develop image simulations that reproduce strong lensing observations by any mass distribution with a high level of realism. Improvements of the code with respect to previous versions include the implementation of the multi-lens plane formalism, the use of denoised source galaxies from the Hubble eXtreme Deep Field, and the simulation of substructures in lensed arcs and images, based on a morphological analysis of bright nearby galaxies. Skylens can simulate observations with virtually any telescope. We present examples of space- and ground-based observations of a galaxy cluster through the Wide Field Channel on the Advanced Camera for Surveys of the Hubble Space Telescope, the Near Infrared Camera of the James Webb Space Telescope, the Wide Field Imager of the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope, the Hyper Suprime Camera of the Subaru telescope, and the Visible Imaging Channel of the Euclid space mission.

Dark Energy Survey year 1 results: Cosmological constraints from galaxy clustering and weak lensing

We present cosmological results from a combined analysis of galaxy clustering and weak gravitational lensing, using 1321 deg$^2$ of $griz$ imaging data from the first year of the Dark Energy Survey (DES Y1). We combine three two-point functions: (i) the cosmic shear correlation function of 26 million source galaxies in four redshift bins, (ii) the galaxy angular autocorrelation function of 650,000 luminous red galaxies in five redshift bins, and (iii) the galaxy-shear cross-correlation of luminous red galaxy positions and source galaxy shears. To demonstrate the robustness of these results, we use independent pairs of galaxy shape, photometric redshift estimation and validation, and likelihood analysis pipelines. To prevent confirmation bias, the bulk of the analysis was carried out while blind to the true results; we describe an extensive suite of systematics checks performed and passed during this blinded phase. The data are modeled in flat $\Lambda$CDM and $w$CDM cosmologies, marginalizing over 20 nuisance parameters, varying 6 (for $\Lambda$CDM) or 7 (for $w$CDM) cosmological parameters including the neutrino mass density and including the 457 $\times$ 457 element analytic covariance matrix. We find consistent cosmological results from these three two-point functions, and from their combination obtain $S_8 \equiv \sigma_8 (\Omega_m/0.3)^{0.5} = 0.783^{+0.021}_{-0.025}$ and $\Omega_m = 0.264^{+0.032}_{-0.019}$ for $\Lambda$CDM for $w$CDM, we find $S_8 = 0.794^{+0.029}_{-0.027}$, $\Omega_m = 0.279^{+0.043}_{-0.022}$, and $w=-0.80^{+0.20}_{-0.22}$ at 68% CL. The precision of these DES Y1 results rivals that from the Planck cosmic microwave background measurements, allowing a comparison of structure in the very early and late Universe on equal terms. Although the DES Y1 best-fit values for $S_8$ and $\Omega_m$ are lower than the central values from Planck ...

SEAGLE – I. A pipeline for simulating and modelling strong lenses from cosmological hydrodynamic simulations

In this paper we introduce the SEAGLE (i.e. Simulating EAGLE LEnses) program, that approaches the study of galaxy formation through strong gravitational lensing, using a suite of high-resolution hydrodynamic simulations, Evolution and Assembly of GaLaxies and their Environments (EAGLE) project. We introduce the simulation and analysis pipeline and present the first set of results from our analysis of early-type galaxies. We identify and extract an ensemble of simulated lens galaxies and use the GLAMER ray-tracing lensing code to create mock lenses similar to those observed in the SLACS and SL2S surveys, using a range of source parameters and galaxy orientations, including observational effects such as the Point-Spread-Function (PSF), pixelization and noise levels, representative of single-orbit observations with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) using the ACS-F814W filter. We subsequently model these mock lenses using the code LENSED, treating them in the same way as observed lenses. We also estimate the mass model parameters directly from the projected surface mass density of the simulated galaxy, using an identical mass model family. We perform a three-way comparison of all the measured quantities with real lenses. We find the average total density slope of EAGLE lenses, $t=2.26\; (0.25\; \rm{rms})$ to be higher than SL2S, $t=2.16$ or SLACS, $t=2.08$. We find a very strong correlation between the external shear ($\gamma$) and the complex ellipticity ($\epsilon$), with $\gamma \sim \epsilon/4$. This correlation indicates a degeneracy in the lens mass modeling. We also see a dispersion between lens modeling and direct fitting results, indicating systematical biases.

Generalised model-independent characterisation of strong gravitational lenses

In galaxy-galaxy strong gravitational lensing, Einstein rings are generated when the lensing galaxy has an axisymmetric lensing potential and the source galaxy is aligned with its symmetry centre along the line of sight. Using a Taylor expansion around the Einstein radius and eliminating the unknown source, I derive a set of analytic equations that determine differences of the deflection angle of the perturber weighted by the convergence of the axisymmetric lens and ratios of the convergences at the positions of the arcs from the measurable thickness of the arcs. In the same manner, asymmetries in the brightness distributions along an arc determine differences in the deflection angle of the perturber if the source has a symmetric brightness profile and is oriented parallel to or orthogonal to the caustic. These equations are the only model-independent information retrievable from observations to leading order in the Taylor expansion. General constraints on the derivatives of the perturbing lens are derived such that the perturbation does not change the number of critical curves. To infer physical properties such as the mass of the perturber or its position, models need to be inserted. The same conclusions about the scale of detectable masses (of the order of 108M⊙) and model-dependent degeneracies as in other approaches are then found and supported by analysing B1938+666 as an example. Yet, the model-independent equations show that there is a fundamental degeneracy between the main lens and the perturber that can only be broken if their relative position is known. This explains the degeneracies between lens models already found in simulations from a more general viewpoint. Hence, apart from the radii and brightness distributions of the arcs, independent information on the axisymmetric lens or the perturber has to be employed to disentangle the axisymmetric lens and the perturber. Depending on the properties of the pertuber, this degeneracy can be broken by characterising the surrounding of the lens or by measuring the time delay between quasar images embedded in the perturbed Einstein ring of the host galaxy.

Correlation of extragalactic γ rays with cosmic matter density distributions from weak gravitational lensing

The extragalactic $\gamma$-ray background (EGB) arises from the accumulation of $\gamma$-ray emissions from resolved and unresolved extragalactic sources as well as diffuse processes. It is important to study the statistical properties of the EGB in the context of cosmological structure formation. Known astrophysical $\gamma$-ray sources such as blazars, star-forming galaxies, and radio galaxies are expected to trace the underlying cosmic matter density distribution. We explore the correlation of the EGB from Fermi-LAT data with the large-scale matter density distribution from the Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) SSP survey. We reconstruct an unbiased surface matter density distribution $\kappa$ at $z<1$ by applying weak-gravitational lensing analysis to the first-year HSC data. We then calculate the $\gamma - \kappa$ cross-correlation. Our measurements are consistent with a null detection, but a weak correlation is found at angular scales of 30-60 arcmin, especially when distant source galaxies at $z > 1$ are used for the lensing $\kappa$ reconstruction. The large-scale correlation suggests strong clustering of high-redshift $\gamma$-ray sources such as blazars. However, the inferred bias factor of $4-5$ is larger by about a factor of two than results from other clustering analyses. The final HSC data covering 1,400 squared degrees will play an essential role to determine accurately the blazar bias at $z > 0.5$.

Measuring the scale dependence of intrinsic alignments using multiple shear estimates

We present a new method for measuring the scale dependence of the intrinsic alignment (IA) contamination to the galaxy-galaxy lensing signal, which takes advantage of multiple shear estimation methods applied to the same source galaxy sample. By exploiting the resulting correlation of both shape noise and cosmic variance, our method can provide an increase in the signal-to-noise of the measured IA signal as compared to methods which rely on the difference of the lensing signal from multiple photometric redshift bins. For a galaxy-galaxy lensing measurement which uses LSST sources and DESI lenses, the signal-to-noise on the IA signal from our method is predicted to improve by a factor of $\sim 2$ relative to the method of Blazek et al. 2012, for pairs of shear estimates which yield substantially different measured IA amplitudes and highly correlated shape noise terms. We show that statistical error necessarily dominates the measurement of intrinsic alignments using our method. We also consider a physically motivated extension of the Blazek et al. 2012 method which assumes that all nearby galaxy pairs, rather than only excess pairs, are subject to IA. In this case, the signal-to-noise of the method of Blazek et al. 2012 is improved.

AutoLens: automated modeling of a strong lens’s light, mass, and source

This work presents AutoLens, the first entirely automated modeling suite for the analysis of galaxy-scale strong gravitational lenses. AutoLens simultaneously models the lens galaxy's light and mass whilst reconstructing the extended source galaxy on an adaptive pixel-grid. The method's approach to source-plane discretization is amorphous, adapting its clustering and regularization to the intrinsic properties of the lensed source. The lens's light is fitted using a superposition of Sersic functions, allowing AutoLens to cleanly deblend its light from the source. Single component mass models representing the lens's total mass density profile are demonstrated, which in conjunction with light modeling can detect central images using a centrally cored profile. Decomposed mass modeling is also shown, which can fully decouple a lens's light and dark matter and determine whether the two component are geometrically aligned. The complexity of the light and mass models are automatically chosen via Bayesian model comparison. These steps form AutoLens's automated analysis pipeline, such that all results in this work are generated without any user-intervention. This is rigorously tested on a large suite of simulated images, assessing its performance on a broad range of lens profiles, source morphologies and lensing geometries. The method's performance is excellent, with accurate light, mass and source profiles inferred for data sets representative of both existing Hubble imaging and future Euclid wide-field observations.

Stacked lensing estimators and their covariance matrices: excess surface mass density versus lensing shear

Stacked lensing is a powerful means of measuring the average mass distribution around large-scale structure tracers. There are two stacked lensing estimators used in the literature, denoted as $\Delta\Sigma$ and $\gamma_+$, which are related as $\Delta\Sigma=\Sigma_{\rm cr}\gamma_+$, where $\Sigma_{\rm cr}(z_l,z_s)$ is the critical surface mass density for each lens-source pair ($z_l$ and $z_s$ are lens and source redshifts, respectively). In this paper we derive a formula for the covariance matrix of $\Delta\Sigma$-estimator focusing on `weight' function to improve the signal-to-noise ($S/N$). We assume that the lensing fields and the distribution of lensing objects obey the Gaussian statistics. With this formula, we show that, if background galaxy shapes are weighted by an amount of $\Sigma_{\rm cr}^{-2}(z_l,z_s)$, the $\Delta\Sigma$-estimator maximizes the $S/N$ in the shot noise limited regime. We also show that the $\Delta\Sigma$-estimator with the weight $\Sigma_{\rm cr}^{-2}$ gives a greater $(S/N)^2$ than that of the $\gamma_+$-estimator by about 5--25\% for lensing objects at redshifts comparable with or higher than the median of source galaxy redshifts for hypothetical Subaru HSC and DES surveys. However, for low-redshift lenses such as $z_l<0.3$, the $\gamma_+$-estimator has higher $(S/N)^2$ than $\Delta\Sigma$. We also discuss that the $(S/N)^2$ for $\Delta\Sigma$ at large separations in the sample variance limited regime can be boosted, by up to a factor of 1.5, if one adopts a weight of $\Sigma_{\rm cr}^{-\alpha}$ with $\alpha>2$. Our formula allows one to explore how the combination of the different estimators can approach an optimal estimator in all regimes of redshifts and separation scales.

The correspondence between convergence peaks from weak lensing and massive dark matter haloes

The convergence peaks, constructed from galaxy shape measurement in weak lensing, is a powerful probe of cosmology as the peaks can be connected with the underlined dark matter haloes. However the capability of convergence peak statistic is affected by the noise in galaxy shape measurement, signal to noise ratio as well as the contribution from the projected mass distribution from the large-scale structures along the line of sight (LOS). In this paper we use the ray-tracing simulation on a curved sky to investigate the correspondence between the convergence peak and the dark matter haloes at the LOS. We find that, in case of no noise and for source galaxies at $z_{\rm s}=1$, more than $65\%$ peaks with $\text{SNR} \geq 3$ (signal to noise ratio) are related to more than one massive haloes with mass larger than $10^{13} {\rm M}_{\odot}$. Those massive haloes contribute $87.2\%$ to high peaks ($\text{SNR} \geq 5$) with the remaining contributions are from the large-scale structures. On the other hand, the peaks distribution is skewed by the noise in galaxy shape measurement, especially for lower SNR peaks. In the noisy field where the shape noise is modelled as a Gaussian distribution, about $60\%$ high peaks ($\text{SNR} \geq 5$) are true peaks and the fraction decreases to $20\%$ for lower peaks ($ 3 \leq \text{SNR} < 5$). Furthermore, we find that high peaks ($\text{SNR} \geq 5$) are dominated by very massive haloes larger than $10^{14} {\rm M}_{\odot}$.

Scale dependence of galaxy biasing investigated by weak gravitational lensing: An assessment using semi-analytic galaxies and simulated lensing data

Galaxies are biased tracers of the matter density on cosmological scales. For future tests of galaxy models, we refine and assess a method to measure galaxy biasing as a function of physical scalekwith weak gravitational lensing. This method enables us to reconstruct the galaxy bias factorb(k) as well as the galaxy-matter correlationr(k) on spatial scales between 0.01hMpc−1≲k≲ 10hMpc−1for redshift-binned lens galaxies below redshiftz≲ 0.6. In the refinement, we account for an intrinsic alignment of source ellipticities, and we correct for the magnification bias of the lens galaxies, relevant for the galaxy-galaxy lensing signal, to improve the accuracy of the reconstructedr(k). For simulated data, the reconstructions achieve an accuracy of 3–7% (68% confidence level) over the abovek-range for a survey area and a typical depth of contemporary ground-based surveys. Realistically the accuracy is, however, probably reduced to about 10–15%, mainly by systematic uncertainties in the assumed intrinsic source alignment, the fiducial cosmology, and the redshift distributions of lens and source galaxies (in that order). Furthermore, our reconstruction technique employs physical templates forb(k) andr(k) that elucidate the impact of central galaxies and the halo-occupation statistics of satellite galaxies on the scale-dependence of galaxy bias, which we discuss in the paper. In a first demonstration, we apply this method to previous measurements in the Garching-Bonn Deep Survey and give a physical interpretation of the lens population.

H0LiCOW VIII. A weak-lensing measurement of the external convergence in the field of the lensed quasar HE 0435−1223

We present a weak gravitational lensing measurement of the external convergence along the line of sight to the quadruply lensed quasar HE$\,$0435$-$1223. Using deep r-band images from Subaru-Suprime-Cam we observe galaxies down to a 3$\sigma$ limiting magnitude of $\sim 26$ mags resulting in a source galaxy density of 14 galaxies / arcmin$^2$ after redshift-based cuts. Using an inpainting technique and Multi-Scale Entropy filtering algorithm, we find that the region in close proximity to the lens has an estimated external convergence of $\kappa=-0.012^{+0.020}_{-0.013}$ and is hence marginally under-dense. We also rule out the presence of any halo with a mass greater than $M_{\rm vir}=1.6\times10^{14}h^{-1}M_\odot$ (68$\%$ confidence limit). Our results, consistent with previous studies of this lens, confirm that the intervening mass along the line of sight to HE$\,$0435$-$1223 does not affect significantly the cosmological results inferred from the time delay measurements of that specific object.

Projection Effects of Large-scale Structures on Weak-lensing Peak Abundances

Abstract High peaks in weak lensing (WL) maps originate dominantly from the lensing effects of single massive halos. Their abundance is therefore closely related to the halo mass function and thus a powerful cosmological probe. However, besides individual massive halos, large-scale structures (LSS) along lines of sight also contribute to the peak signals. In this paper, with ray-tracing simulations, we investigate the LSS projection effects. We show that for current surveys with a large shape noise, the stochastic LSS effects are subdominant. For future WL surveys with source galaxies having a median redshift z med ∼ 1 or higher, however, they are significant. For the cosmological constraints derived from observed WL high-peak counts, severe biases can occur if the LSS effects are not taken into account properly. We extend the model of Fan et al. by incorporating the LSS projection effects into the theoretical considerations. By comparing with simulation results, we demonstrate the good performance of the improved model and its applicability in cosmological studies.

Dark Energy Survey Year 1 Results: redshift distributions of the weak-lensing source galaxies

We describe the derivation and validation of redshift distribution estimates and their uncertainties for the galaxies used as weak lensing sources in the Dark Energy Survey (DES) Year 1 cosmological analyses. The Bayesian Photometric Redshift (BPZ) code is used to assign galaxies to four redshift bins between z=0.2 and 1.3, and to produce initial estimates of the lensing-weighted redshift distributions $n^i_{PZ}(z)$ for bin i. Accurate determination of cosmological parameters depends critically on knowledge of $n^i$ but is insensitive to bin assignments or redshift errors for individual galaxies. The cosmological analyses allow for shifts $n^i(z)=n^i_{PZ}(z-\Delta z^i)$ to correct the mean redshift of $n^i(z)$ for biases in $n^i_{\rm PZ}$. The $\Delta z^i$ are constrained by comparison of independently estimated 30-band photometric redshifts of galaxies in the COSMOS field to BPZ estimates made from the DES griz fluxes, for a sample matched in fluxes, pre-seeing size, and lensing weight to the DES weak-lensing sources. In companion papers, the $\Delta z^i$ are further constrained by the angular clustering of the source galaxies around red galaxies with secure photometric redshifts at 0.15<z<0.9. This paper details the BPZ and COSMOS procedures, and demonstrates that the cosmological inference is insensitive to details of the $n^i(z)$ beyond the choice of $\Delta z^i$. The clustering and COSMOS validation methods produce consistent estimates of $\Delta z^i$, with combined uncertainties of $\sigma_{\Delta z^i}=$0.015, 0.013, 0.011, and 0.022 in the four bins. We marginalize over these in all analyses to follow, which does not diminish the constraining power significantly. Repeating the photo-z procedure using the Directional Neighborhood Fitting (DNF) algorithm instead of BPZ, or using the $n^i(z)$ directly estimated from COSMOS, yields no discernible difference in cosmological inferences.

Source selection for cluster weak lensing measurements in the Hyper Suprime-Cam survey

Abstract We present optimized source galaxy selection schemes for measuring cluster weak lensing (WL) mass profiles unaffected by cluster member dilution from the Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam Strategic Survey Program (HSC-SSP). The ongoing HSC-SSP survey will uncover thousands of galaxy clusters to z ≲ 1.5. In deriving cluster masses via WL, a critical source of systematics is contamination and dilution of the lensing signal by cluster members, and by foreground galaxies whose photometric redshifts are biased. Using the first-year CAMIRA catalog of ∼900 clusters with richness larger than 20 found in ∼140 deg2 of HSC-SSP data, we devise and compare several source selection methods, including selection in color–color space (CC-cut), and selection of robust photometric redshifts by applying constraints on their cumulative probability distribution function (P-cut). We examine the dependence of the contamination on the chosen limits adopted for each method. Using the proper limits, these methods give mass profiles with minimal dilution in agreement with one another. We find that not adopting either the CC-cut or P-cut methods results in an underestimation of the total cluster mass (13% ± 4%) and the concentration of the profile (24% ± 11%). The level of cluster contamination can reach as high as ∼10% at R ≈ 0.24 Mpc/h for low-z clusters without cuts, while employing either the P-cut or CC-cut results in cluster contamination consistent with zero to within the 0.5% uncertainties. Our robust methods yield a ∼60 σ detection of the stacked CAMIRA surface mass density profile, with a mean mass of M200c = [1.67 ± 0.05(stat)] × 1014 M⊙/h.

Dark Energy Survey Year 1 results: cross-correlation redshifts – methods and systematics characterization

We use numerical simulations to characterize the performance of a clustering-based method to calibrate photometric redshift biases. In particular, we cross-correlate the weak lensing (WL) source galaxies from the Dark Energy Survey Year 1 (DES Y1) sample with redMaGiC galaxies (luminous red galaxies with secure photometric redshifts) to estimate the redshift distribution of the former sample. The recovered redshift distributions are used to calibrate the photometric redshift bias of standard photo-$z$ methods applied to the same source galaxy sample. We apply the method to three photo-$z$ codes run in our simulated data: Bayesian Photometric Redshift (BPZ), Directional Neighborhood Fitting (DNF), and Random Forest-based photo-$z$ (RF). We characterize the systematic uncertainties of our calibration procedure, and find that these systematic uncertainties dominate our error budget. The dominant systematics are due to our assumption of unevolving bias and clustering across each redshift bin, and to differences between the shapes of the redshift distributions derived by clustering vs photo-$z$'s. The systematic uncertainty in the mean redshift bias of the source galaxy sample is $\Delta z \lesssim 0.02$, though the precise value depends on the redshift bin under consideration. We discuss possible ways to mitigate the impact of our dominant systematics in future analyses.

Flexion in Abell 2744

We present the first flexion-focused gravitational lensing analysis of the first of the strong-lensing cosmic telescope galaxy clusters, observed as part of the Hubble Frontier Fields initiative. Using HST observations of Abell 2744 (z = 0.308), we apply a modified Analytic Image Model (AIM) technique to measure source galaxy flexion and shear values at a final number density of 82 arcmin$^{-2}$. By using flexion data alone we are able to identify the primary mass structure aligned along the heart of the cluster in addition to a major substructure peak offset 1.43' from the cluster core. We generate two types of nonparametric reconstructions: a flexion aperture mass map, which identifies the central potential and substructure peak with mass signal-to-noise of 3.5$\sigma$ and 2.3$\sigma$ respectively; and a convergence map derived directly from the smoothed flexion field. For the primary peak we find a mass of $1.93\times10^{14}\,h^{-1}\,M_{\odot}$ within a 45 (145h$^{-1}$ kpc) aperture, and for the western substructure we find a mass of $7.12\times10^{13}\,h^{-1}\,M_{\odot}$ within a 25 (80h$^{-1}$ kpc) aperture. The associated peak velocity dispersions were determined to be $\sigma_v$ = 1630 km/s and $\sigma_v$ = 766 km/s, respectively, by fitting nonsingular isothermal sphere profiles to the flexion data. Additionally, we use simultaneous shear measurements to independently reconstruct the broader cluster mass structure, and find that it is unable to reproduce the small-scale structure associated with the flexion reconstructions. Finally, we perform the same analysis on the Abell 2744 parallel sky field, and find no strong phantom signals in the noise reconstructions.