Cluster mass reconstruction from weak gravitational lensing

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

Accepted for publication in MNRAS. Compressed postscript also available at ftp://star-ftp.dur.ac.uk/pub/preprints/wcf.ps.gz

Scientific paper

Kaiser & Squires have proposed a technique for mapping the dark matter in galaxy clusters using the coherent weak distortion of background galaxy images caused by gravitational lensing. We investigate the effectiveness of this technique under controlled conditions by creating simulated CCD frames containing galaxies lensed by a model cluster, measuring the resulting galaxy shapes, and comparing the reconstructed mass distribution with the original. Typically, the reconstructed surface density is diminished in magnitude when compared to the original. The main cause of this reduced signal is the blurring of galaxy images by atmospheric seeing, but the overall factor by which the reconstructed surface density is reduced depends also on the signal-to-noise ratio in the CCD frame and on both the sizes of galaxy images and the magnitude limit of the sample that is analysed. We propose a method for estimating a multiplicative compensation factor. We test our technique using a lensing cluster drawn from a cosmological N-body simulation with a variety of realistic background galaxy populations and observing conditions. We find that typically the compensation factor is appreciable, 1.4

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

Cluster mass reconstruction from weak gravitational lensing does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Cluster mass reconstruction from weak gravitational lensing, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Cluster mass reconstruction from weak gravitational lensing will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-428740

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.