No Arabic abstract
Accelerating expansion of the Universe is a great challenge for both physics and cosmology. In light of lacking the convincing theoretical explanation, an effective description of this phenomenon in terms of cosmic equation of state turns out useful. The strength of modern cosmology lies in consistency across independent, often unrelated pieces of evidence. Therefore, every alternative method of restricting cosmic equation of state is important. Strongly gravitationally lensed quasar-galaxy systems create such new opportunity by combining stellar kinematics (central velocity dispersion measurements) with lensing geometry (Einstein radius determination form position of images). In this paper we apply such method to a combined data sets from SLACS and LSD surveys of gravitational lenses. In result we obtain the cosmic equation of state parameters, which generally agree with results already known in the literature. This demonstrates that the method can be further used on larger samples obtained in the future. Independently noticed systematic deviation between fits done on standard candles and standard rulers is revealed in our findings. We also identify an important selection effect crucial to our method associated with geometric configuration of the lensing system along line of sight, which may have consequences for sample construction from the future lensing surveys.
Recently, some divergent conclusions about cosmic acceleration were obtained using type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia), with opposite assumptions on the intrinsic luminosity evolution. In this paper, we use strong gravitational lensing systems to probe the cosmic acceleration. Since the theory of strong gravitational lensing is established certainly, and the Einstein radius is determined by stable cosmic geometry. We study two cosmological models, $Lambda$CDM and power-law models, through 152 strong gravitational lensing systems, incorporating with 30 Hubble parameters $H(z)$ and 11 baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) measurements. Bayesian evidence are introduced to make a one-on-one comparison between cosmological models. Basing on Bayes factors $ln B$ of flat $Lambda$CDM versus power-law and $R_{h}=ct$ models are $ln B>5$, we find that the flat $Lambda$CDM is strongly supported by the combination of the datasets. Namely, an accelerating cosmology with non power-law expansion is preferred by our numeration.
Using a new sub-sample of observed strong gravitational lens systems, for the first time, we present the equation for the angular diameter distance in the $y$-redshift scenario for cosmography and use it to test the cosmographic parameters. In addition, we also use the observational Hubble data from cosmic chronometers and a Joint analysis of both data is performed. Among the most important conclusions are that this new analysis for cosmography using Strong Lensing Systems is equally competitive to constrain the cosmographic parameters as others presented in literature. Additionally, we present the reconstruction of the effective equation of state inferred from our samples, showing that at $z=0$ those reconstructions from Strong Lensing Systems and Joint analysis are in concordance with the standard model of cosmology.
Strong gravitational lensing along with the distance sum rule method can constrain both cosmological parameters as well as density profiles of galaxies without assuming any fiducial cosmological model. To constrain galaxy parameters and cosmic curvature $(Omega_{k0})$, we use the distance ratio data from a recently compiled database of $161$ galactic scale strong lensing systems. We use databases of supernovae type-Ia (Pantheon) and Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) for calculating the luminosity distance. To study the model of the lens galaxy, we consider a general lens model namely, the Extended Power-Law model. Further, we take into account two different parametrisations of the mass density power-law index $(gamma)$ to study the dependence of $gamma$ on redshift. The best value of $Omega_{k0}$ suggests a closed universe, though a flat universe is accommodated at $68%$ confidence level. We find that parametrisations of $gamma$ have a negligible impact on the best fit value of the cosmic curvature parameter. Furthermore, measurement of time delay can be a promising cosmographic probe via time delay distance that includes the ratio of distances between the observer, the lens and the source. We again use the distance sum rule method with time-delay distance dataset of H0LiCOW to put constraints on the Cosmic Distance Duality Relation (CDDR) and the cosmic curvature parameter $(Omega_{k0})$. For this we consider two different redshift-dependent parametrisations of the distance duality parameter $(eta)$. The best fit value of $Omega_{k0}$ clearly indicates an open universe. However, a flat universe can be accommodated at $95%$ confidence level. Further, at $95%$ confidence level, no violation of CDDR is observed. We believe that a larger sample of strong gravitational lensing systems is needed in order to improve the constraints on the cosmic curvature and distance duality parameter.
Testing the distance-sum-rule in strong lensing systems provides an interesting method to determine the curvature parameter $Omega_k$ using more local objects. In this paper, we apply this method to a quite recent data set of strong lensing systems in combination with intermediate-luminosity quasars calibrated as standard rulers. In the framework of three types of lens models extensively used in strong lensing studies (SIS model, power-law spherical model, and extended power-law lens model), we show that the assumed lens model has a considerable impact on the cosmic curvature constraint, which is found to be compatible or marginally compatible with the flat case (depending on the lens model adopted). Analysis of low, intermediate and high-mass sub-samples defined according to the lens velocity dispersion demonstrates that, although it is not reasonable to characterize all lenses with a uniform model, such division has little impact on cosmic curvature inferred. Finally, thinking about future when massive surveys will provide their yields, we simulated a mock catalog of strong lensing systems expected to be seen by the LSST, together with a realistic catalog of quasars. We found that with about 16000 such systems, combined with the distance information provided by 500 compact milliarcsecond radio sources seen in future radio astronomical surveys, one would be able to constrain the cosmic curvature with an accuracy of $Delta Omega_ksimeq 10^{-3}$, which is comparable to the precision of textit{Planck} 2015 results.
We have searched 4.5 square degrees of archival HST/ACS images for cosmic strings, identifying close pairs of similar, faint galaxies and selecting groups whose alignment is consistent with gravitational lensing by a long, straight string. We find no evidence for cosmic strings in five large-area HST treasury surveys (covering a total of 2.22 square degrees), or in any of 346 multi-filter guest observer images (1.18 square degrees). Assuming that simulations ccurately predict the number of cosmic strings in the universe, this non-detection allows us to place upper limits on the unitless Universal cosmic string tension of G mu/c^2 < 2.3 x 10^-6, and cosmic string density of Omega_s < 2.1 x 10^-5 at the 95% confidence level (marginalising over the other parameter in each case). We find four dubious cosmic string candidates in 318 single filter guest observer images (1.08 square degrees), which we are unable to conclusively eliminate with existing data. The confirmation of any one of these candidates as cosmic strings would imply G mu/c^2 ~ 10^-6 and Omega_s ~ 10^-5. However, we estimate that there is at least a 92% chance that these string candidates are random alignments of galaxies. If we assume that these candidates are indeed false detections, our final limits on G mu/c^2 and Omega_s fall to 6.5 x 10^-7 and 7.3 x 10^-6. Due to the extensive sky coverage of the HST/ACS image archive, the above limits are universal. They are quite sensitive to the number of fields being searched, and could be further reduced by more than a factor of two using forthcoming HST data.