Measuring the curvature of the universe with gravitational lensing.

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Cosmology: Gravitational Lenses

Scientific paper

The image separations of gravitational lens systems as a function of the source redshift depends on the curvature of the universe if lenses can be approximated by singular isothermal spheres. In a flat k = 0 cosmology, image separations should be uncorrelated with the source redshift. In an open k = -1 cosmology such image separations become smaller with increasing source redshift and vice versa for a closed k = +1 cosmology. The observed lens systems do show negative correlation between the image separation versus the source redshift. However, the negative correlation seen in the data is much stronger than any correlation expected in open or even in empty universes. Therefore, the curvature effect alone cannot explain the observed negative correlation. The author explores other possibilities that may explain these strong correlations: steeper galaxy mass profile, lens evolution, merging and infall, and clustering. None of them produce strong enough negative correlation as seen in the data, leaving a puzzle. If a rather unlikely assumption that all lens systems with image separations lager than 3.0″are "false" lenses, the correlation becomes insignificant and there ceases to be a problem. However, the author shows that under such an image separation distribution roughly 300 lens systems suffice to test the curvature of a Ω = 0.4 open universe with 95% confidence, which is well within the reach of future surveys.

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