Other
Scientific paper
May 2009
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009aas...21430201c&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #214, #302.01; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 41, p.718
Other
Scientific paper
Gravitational lensing has become a powerful probe of cold dark matter substructure. Earlier work using anomalous flux ratios in four-image quasar lenses has shown that lensing is sensitive to substructure which raises the exciting prospect of constraining the mass function and spatial distribution of dark matter satellites in galaxies. We examine the ability of gravitational lens time delays to reveal complex structure in lens potentials. We use Monte Carlo simulations to determine the range of time delays that can be produced by realistic smooth lens models consisting of isothermal ellipsoid galaxies with tidal shear. We can then identify outliers as "time-delay anomalies." We find evidence for anomalies in close image pairs in the cusp lenses RX J1131-1231 and B1422+231. The anomalies in RX J1131-1231 provide strong evidence for substructure in the lens potential, while at this point the apparent anomalies in B1422+231 mainly indicate that the time delay measurements need to be improved. We also find evidence for time-delay anomalies in larger-separation image pairs in four additional lenses. We suggest that these anomalies are caused by some combination of substructure and a complex lens environment. Our work argues for a large sample of strong lenses with precisely-measured time delays. The first of these objectives will be readily achievable as the next generation of optical and radio telescopes come online, while the second will require a dedicated one-meter class space-based observatory. Meeting these goals will make it possible to examine the properties of dark matter on sub-galactic scales, which is essential for distinguishing among the various dark matter candidates from particle physics. Part of this work was funded by NSF grant AST-0747311. ABC is currently supported by an appointment to the NASA Postdoctoral Program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, administered by Oak Ridge Associated Universities through a contract with NASA.
Congdon Arthur B.
Keeton Charles R.
Nordgren Erik C.
No associations
LandOfFree
Identifying Anomalies in Gravitational Lens Time Delays 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 Identifying Anomalies in Gravitational Lens Time Delays, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Identifying Anomalies in Gravitational Lens Time Delays will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1106001