Weak lensing by large-scale structure is a powerful probe of cosmology if the apparent alignments in the shapes of distant galaxies can be accurately measured. We study the performance of a fully ...data-driven approach, based on M
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, focusing on the more realistic case of observations with an anisotropic point spread function (PSF). Under the assumption that PSF anisotropy is the only source of additive shear bias, we show how unbiased shear estimates can be obtained from the observed data alone. To do so, we exploit the finding that the multiplicative shear bias obtained with M
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is nearly insensitive to the PSF ellipticity. In practice, this assumption can be validated by comparing the empirical corrections obtained from observations to those from simulated data. We show that our data-driven approach meets the stringent requirements for upcoming space- and ground-based surveys, although further optimisation is possible.
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Abstract
Improvements in the accuracy of shape measurements are essential to exploit the statistical power of planned imaging surveys that aim to constrain cosmological parameters using weak lensing ...by large-scale structure. Although a range of tests can be performed using the measurements, the performance of the algorithm can only be quantified using simulated images. This yields, however, only meaningful results if the simulated images resemble the real observations sufficiently well. In this paper, we explore the sensitivity of the multiplicative bias to the input parameters of Euclid-like image simulations. We find that algorithms will need to account for the local density of sources. In particular, the impact of galaxies below the detection limit warrants further study because magnification changes their number density, resulting in correlations between the lensing signal and multiplicative bias. Although achieving sub-per cent accuracy will require further study, we estimate that sufficient archival Hubble
Space Telescope data are available to create realistic populations of galaxies.
Masses of clusters of galaxies from weak gravitational lensing analyses of ever larger samples are increasingly used as the reference to which baryonic scaling relations are compared. In this paper ...we revisit the analysis of a sample of 50 clusters studied as part of the Canadian Cluster Comparison Project. We examine the key sources of systematic error in cluster masses. We quantify the robustness of our shape measurements and calibrate our algorithm empirically using extensive image simulations. The source redshift distribution is revised using the latest state-of-the-art photometric redshift catalogues that include new deep near-infrared observations. None the less we find that the uncertainty in the determination of photometric redshifts is the largest source of systematic error for our mass estimates. We use our updated masses to determine b, the bias in the hydrostatic mass, for the clusters detected by Planck. Our results suggest 1 − b = 0.76 ± 0.05 (stat) ± 0.06 (syst), which does not resolve the tension with the measurements from the primary cosmic microwave background.
Weak gravitational lensing is a unique probe of the dark side of the universe: It provides a direct way to map the distribution of dark matter around galaxies and clusters of galaxies as well as on ...cosmological scales. Furthermore, the measurement of the weak lensing–induced distortions of the shapes of distant galaxies is a potentially powerful probe of dark energy. In this review we discuss how this challenging measurement is made and interpreted. We describe the various systematic effects that can hamper progress and how they may be overcome. We review some of the recent results in weak lensing by galaxies, galaxy clusters, and cosmic shear and discuss the prospects for dark energy measurements from planned surveys.
The Canadian Cluster Comparison Project is a comprehensive multi-wavelength survey targeting 50 massive X-ray selected clusters of galaxies to examine baryonic tracers of cluster mass and to probe ...the cluster-to-cluster variation in the thermal properties of the hot intra-cluster medium. In this paper we present the weak lensing masses, based on the analysis of deep wide field imaging data obtained using the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. The final sample includes two additional clusters that were located in the field-of-view. We take these masses as our reference for the comparison of cluster properties at other wavelengths. In this paper we limit the comparison to published measurements of the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect. We find that this signal correlates well with the projected lensing mass, with an intrinsic scatter of 12 ± 5 per cent at ∼r
2500, demonstrating it is an excellent proxy for cluster mass.
Abstract
The convolution of galaxy images by the point spread function (PSF) is the dominant source of bias for weak gravitational lensing studies, and an accurate estimate of the PSF is required to ...obtain unbiased shape measurements. The PSF estimate for a galaxy depends on its spectral energy distribution (SED), because the instrumental PSF is generally a function of the wavelength. In this paper we explore various approaches to determine the resulting ‘effective’ PSF using broad-band data. Considering the Euclid mission as a reference, we find that standard SED template fitting methods result in biases that depend on source redshift, although this may be remedied if the algorithms can be optimized for this purpose. Using a machine learning algorithm we show that, at least in principle, the required accuracy can be achieved with the current survey parameters. It is also possible to account for the correlations between photometric redshift and PSF estimates that arise from the use of the same photometry. We explore the impact of errors in photometric calibration, errors in the assumed wavelength dependence of the PSF model, and limitations of the adopted template libraries. Our results indicate that the required accuracy for Euclid can be achieved using the data that are planned to determine photometric redshifts.
ABSTRACT
Intrinsic alignments (IAs) of galaxies are an important contaminant for cosmic shear studies, but the modelling is complicated by the dependence of the signal on the source galaxy sample. In ...this paper, we use the halo model formalism to capture this diversity and examine its implications for Stage-III and Stage-IV cosmic shear surveys. We account for the different IA signatures at large and small scales, as well as for the different contributions from central/satellite and red/blue galaxies, and we use realistic mocks to account for the characteristics of the galaxy populations as a function of redshift. We inform our model using the most recent observational findings: we include a luminosity dependence at both large and small scales and a radial dependence of the signal within the halo. We predict the impact of the total IA signal on the lensing angular power spectra, including the current uncertainties from the IA best-fits to illustrate the range of possible impact on the lensing signal: the lack of constraints for fainter galaxies is the main source of uncertainty for our predictions of the IA signal. We investigate how well effective models with limited degrees of freedom can account for the complexity of the IA signal. Although these lead to negligible biases for Stage-III surveys, we find that, for Stage-IV surveys, it is essential to at least include an additional parameter to capture the redshift dependence.
ABSTRACT
The interpretation of upcoming weak gravitational lensing surveys depends critically on our understanding of the matter power spectrum on scales $k \lt 10\, {h\, {\rm Mpc}^{-1}}$, where ...baryonic processes are important. We study the impact of galaxy formation processes on the matter power spectrum using a halo model that treats the stars and gas separately from the dark matter distribution. We use empirical constraints from X-ray observations (hot gas) and halo occupation distribution modelling (stars) for the baryons. Since X-ray observations cannot generally measure the hot gas content outside r500c, we vary the gas density profiles beyond this radius. Compared with dark matter only models, we find a total power suppression of $1\, {\mathrm{per\ cent}}$ ($5\, {\mathrm{per\ cent}}$) on scales $0.2\!-\!1\, {h\, {\rm Mpc}^{-1}}$ ($0.5\!-\!2\, {h\, {\rm Mpc}^{-1}}$), where lower baryon fractions result in stronger suppression. We show that groups of galaxies ($10^{13} \lt m_{\mathrm{500c}} / (h^{-1}\, \mathrm{M}_{\odot }) \lt 10^{14}$) dominate the total power at all scales $k \lesssim 10\, {h\, {\rm Mpc}^{-1}}$. We find that a halo mass bias of $30\, {\mathrm{per\ cent}}$ (similar to what is expected from the hydrostatic equilibrium assumption) results in an underestimation of the power suppression of up to $4\, {\mathrm{per\ cent}}$ at $k=1\, {h\, {\rm Mpc}^{-1}}$, illustrating the importance of measuring accurate halo masses. Contrary to work based on hydrodynamical simulations, our conclusion that baryonic effects can no longer be neglected is not subject to uncertainties associated with our poor understanding of feedback processes. Observationally, probing the outskirts of groups and clusters will provide the tightest constraints on the power suppression for $k \lesssim 1\, {h\, {\rm Mpc}^{-1}}$.
Recent observations have highlighted a significant population of faint but large (reff> 1.5 kpc) galaxies in the Coma cluster. The origin of these ultra diffuse galaxies (UDGs) remains puzzling, as ...the interpretation of these observational results has been hindered by the (partly) subjective selection of UDGs, and the limited study of only the Coma (and some examples in the Virgo-) cluster. In this paper we extend the study of UDGs using eight clusters in the redshift range 0.044 <z< 0.063 with deep g- and r-band imaging data taken with MegaCam at the CFHT. We describe an automatic selection pipeline for quantitative identification, and tested for completeness using image simulations of these galaxies. We find that the abundance of the UDGs we can detect increases with cluster mass, reaching ~200 in typical haloes of M200 ≃ 1015M⊙. For the ensemble cluster we measure the size distribution of UDGs, their colour−magnitude distribution, and their completeness-corrected radial density distribution within the clusters. The morphologically-selected cluster UDGs have colours consistent with the cluster red sequence, and have a steep size distribution that, at a given surface brightness, declines as n dex-1 ∝ reff-3.4 ± 0.2. Their radial distribution is significantly steeper than NFW in the outskirts, and is significantly shallower in the inner parts. We find them to follow the same radial distribution as the more massive quiescent galaxies in the clusters, except within the core region of r ≲ 0.15 × R200 (or ≲ 300 kpc). Within this region the number density of UDGs drops and is consistent with zero. These diffuse galaxies can only resist tidal forces down to this cluster-centric distance if they are highly centrally dark-matter dominated. The observation that the radial distribution of more compact dwarf galaxies (reff< 1.0 kpc) with similar luminosities follows the same distribution as the UDGs, but exist down to a smaller distance of 100 kpc from the cluster centres, may indicate that they have similarly massive sub-haloes as the UDGs. Although a number of scenarios can give rise to the UDG population, our results point to differences in the formation history as the most plausible explanation.
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