Physics
Scientific paper
Jan 2011
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011aas...21722706p&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #217, #227.06; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 43, 2011
Physics
Scientific paper
We occupy a "dark” Universe where 23% of its mass-energy density is made up of weakly interacting (and, as yet, undetected) non-baryonic particles (a.k.a. dark matter) and 72% is as yet unknown physics (a.k.a. dark energy) that is driving an accelerated expansion. To shed new light on these mysteries, we have been awarded 524 orbits of time to conduct a multi-year program with the Hubble Space Telescope that will couple the gravitational lensing power of 25 massive intermediate redshift galaxy clusters with HST's newly enhanced panchromatic imaging capabilities (WFC3 and a restored ACS) to test structure formation models with unprecedented precision. The HST observations, combined with existing wide-field imaging, represent a giant advance in the quality and quantity of strong lensing data, enabling us to measure the dark matter (DM) mass profile shapes and mass concentrations from hundreds of multiply imaged sources, providing precise ( 10%) observational challenges to scenarios for the DM mass distribution. The strongly lensing clusters in our sample give us a tenfold advantage over field surveys in identifying galaxies with z >7 for which spectra can be obtained with large ground-based telescopes. In parallel with this lensing survey, we will use both ACS and WFC3/IR to detect type-Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) in the space-unique redshift range 1 < z < 2. Because the SNe Ia will be detected when these cameras are in parallel, they will be far from the cluster core where the effects of lensing are small (and correctable), making the SNe usable for improving the limits on the redshift variation of the dark energy equation of state. We present the science that will be addressed with our survey and some of the preliminary data obtained with HST.
CLASH Team
Coe Dan
Donahue Megan
Ford Holland
Moustakas Leonidas
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