Strong Lensing in Abell 1703: Constraints on the Slope of the Inner Dark Matter Distribution

Details Strong Lensing in Abell 1703: Constraints on the Slope of the Inner Dark Matter Distribution Strong Lensing in Abell 1703: Constraints on the Slope of the Inner Dark Matter Distribution

2008-02-28

arxiv.org/abs/0802.4292v2

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

Accepted for publication, conclusion unchanged but strengthened by a serie of tests suggested by a constructive referee report

Scientific paper

10.1051/0004-6361:200809646

In this article, we apply strong lensing techniques in Abell 1703, a massive X-ray luminous galaxy cluster at z=0.28. Our analysis is based on imaging data both from space and ground in 8 bands, complemented with a spectroscopic survey. Abell 1703 looks rather circular from the general shape of its multiply imaged systems and present a dominant giant elliptical cD galaxy in its centre. This cluster exhibits a remarkable bright 'central ring' formed by 4 bright images at z_{spec}=0.888 located very close to the cD galaxy, providing observational constraints that are potentially very interesting to probe the central mass distribution. The stellar contribution from the cD galaxy (~1.25 10^{12} M_{sun} within 7") is accounted for in our parametric mass modelling, and the underlying smooth dark matter component distribution is described using a generalized NFW profile parametrized with a central logarithmic slope \alpha. We find that within the range where observational constraints are present (from ~5" to ~50"), the slope of the dark matter distribution in Abell1703 is equal to 1.09^{+0.05}_{-0.11} (3\sigma confidence level). The concentration parameter is equal to c_{200} ~ 3.5, and the scale radius is constrained to be larger than the region where observational constraints are available. Within this radius, the 2D mass is equal to M(50")=2.4 10^{14} M_{\sun}. We cannot draw any conclusions on cosmological models at this point since we lack results from realistic numerical simulations containing baryons to make a proper comparison. We advocate the need for a sample of observed and simulated unimodal relaxed galaxy clusters in order to make reliable comparisons, and potentially provide a test of cosmological models.

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