No Arabic abstract
We derive constraints on the matter density Om and the amplitude of matter clustering sig8 from measurements of large scale weak lensing (projected separation R=5-30hmpc) by clusters in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey MaxBCG catalog. The weak lensing signal is proportional to the product of Om and the cluster-mass correlation function xicm. With the relation between optical richness and cluster mass constrained by the observed cluster number counts, the predicted lensing signal increases with increasing Om or sig8, with mild additional dependence on the assumed scatter between richness and mass. The dependence of the signal on scale and richness partly breaks the degeneracies among these parameters. We incorporate external priors on the richness-mass scatter from comparisons to X-ray data and on the shape of the matter power spectrum from galaxy clustering, and we test our adopted model for xicm against N-body simulations. Using a Bayesian approach with minimal restrictive priors, we find sig8(Om/0.325)^{0.501}=0.828 +/- 0.049, with marginalized constraints of Om=0.325_{-0.067}^{+0.086} and sig8=0.828_{-0.097}^{+0.111}, consistent with constraints from other MaxBCG studies that use weak lensing measurements on small scales (R<=2hmpc). The (Om,sig8) constraint is consistent with and orthogonal to the one inferred from WMAP CMB data, reflecting agreement with the structure growth predicted by GR for an LCDM cosmological model. A joint constraint assuming LCDM yields Om=0.298 +/- 0.020 and sig8=0.831 +/- 0.020. Our cosmological parameter errors are dominated by the statistical uncertainties of the large scale weak lensing measurements, which should shrink sharply with current and future imaging surveys.
Context. The large-scale mass distribution around dark matter haloes hosting galaxy clusters provides sensitive cosmological information. Aims. In this work, we make use of a large photometric galaxy cluster sample, constructed from the public Third Data Release of the Kilo-Degree Survey, and the corresponding shear signal, to assess cluster masses and test the concordance ${Lambda}$-cold dark matter (${Lambda}$CDM) model. In particular, we study the weak gravitational lensing effects on scales beyond the cluster virial radius, where the signal is dominated by correlated and uncorrelated matter density distributions along the line-of-sight. The analysed catalogue consists of 6962 galaxy clusters, in the redshift range $0.1 leq z leq 0.6$ and with signal-to-noise ratio larger than 3.5. Methods. We perform a full Bayesian analysis to model the stacked shear profiles of these clusters. The adopted likelihood function considers both the small-scale 1-halo term, used primarily to constrain the cluster structural properties, and the 2-halo term, that can be used to constrain cosmological parameters. Results. We find that the adopted modelling is successful to assess both the cluster masses and the total matter density parameter, ${Omega}_M$, when fitting shear profiles up to the largest available scales of 35 Mpc/h. Moreover, our results provide a strong observational evidence of the 2-halo signal in the stacked gravitational lensing of galaxy clusters, further demonstrating the reliability of this probe for cosmological studies. The main result of this work is a robust constraint on ${Omega}_M$, assuming a flat ${Lambda}$CDM cosmology. We get ${Omega}_M = 0.29 pm 0.02$, estimated from the full posterior probability distribution, consistent with the estimates from cosmic microwave background experiments.
We constrain the scaling relation between optical richness ($lambda$) and halo mass ($M$) for a sample of SDSS redMaPPer galaxy clusters within the context of the {it Planck} cosmological model. We use a forward modeling approach where we model the probability distribution of optical richness for a given mass, $P(ln lambda| M)$. To model the abundance and the stacked lensing profiles, we use an emulator specifically built to interpolate the halo mass function and the stacked lensing profile for an arbitrary set of halo mass and redshift, which is calibrated based on a suite of high-resolution $N$-body simulations. We apply our method to 8,312 SDSS redMaPPer clusters with $20le lambda le 100$ and $0.10le z_{lambda}le0.33$, and show that the log-normal distribution model for $P(lambda|M)$, with four free parameters, well reproduces the measured abundances and lensing profiles simultaneously. The constraints are characterized by the mean relation, $leftlangle ln{lambda}rightrangle(M)=A+Bln(M/M_{rm pivot})$, with $A=3.207^{+0.044}_{-0.046}$ and $B=0.993^{+0.041}_{-0.055}$ (68%~CL), where the pivot mass scale $M_{rm pivot}=3times 10^{14} h^{-1}M_odot$, and the scatter $sigma_{mathrm{lnlambda}|M}=sigma_0+qln(M/M_{rm pivot})$ with $sigma_0=0.456^{+0.047}_{-0.039}$ and $q=-0.169^{+0.035}_{-0.026}$. We find that a large scatter in halo masses is required at the lowest richness bins ($20le lambda lesssim 30$) in order to reproduce the measurements. Without such a large scatter, the model prediction for the lensing profiles tends to overestimate the measured amplitudes. This might imply a possible contamination of intrinsically low-richness clusters due to the projection effects. Such a low-mass halo contribution is significantly reduced when applying our method to the sample of $30le lambda le 100$.
Weak lensing peak counts are a powerful statistical tool for constraining cosmological parameters. So far, this method has been applied only to surveys with relatively small areas, up to several hundred square degrees. As future surveys will provide weak lensing datasets with size of thousands of square degrees, the demand on the theoretical prediction of the peak statistics will become heightened. In particular, large simulations of increased cosmological volume are required. In this work, we investigate the possibility of using simulations generated with the fast Comoving-Lagrangian acceleration (COLA) method, coupled to the convergence map generator Ufalcon, for predicting the peak counts. We examine the systematics introduced by the COLA method by comparing it with a full TreePM code. We find that for a 2000 deg$^2$ survey, the systematic error is much smaller than the statistical error. This suggests that the COLA method is able to generate promising theoretical predictions for weak lensing peaks. We also examine the constraining power of various configurations of data vectors, exploring the influence of splitting the sample into tomographic bins and combining different smoothing scales. We find the combination of smoothing scales to have the most constraining power, improving the constraints on the $S_8$ amplitude parameter by at least 40% compared to a single smoothing scale, with tomography brining only limited increase in measurement precision.
We present a cosmological analysis of abundances and stacked weak-lensing profiles of galaxy clusters, exploiting the AMICO KiDS-DR3 catalogue. The sample consists of 3652 galaxy clusters with intrinsic richness $lambda^*geq20$, over an effective area of 377 deg$^2$, in the redshift range $zin[0.1,,0.6]$. We quantified the purity and completeness of the sample through simulations. The statistical analysis has been performed by simultaneously modelling the comoving number density of galaxy clusters and the scaling relation between the intrinsic richnesses and the cluster masses, assessed through a stacked weak-lensing profile modelling. The fluctuations of the matter background density, caused by super-survey modes, have been taken into account in the likelihood. Assuming a flat $Lambda$CDM model, we constrained $Omega_{rm m}$, $sigma_8$, $S_8 equiv sigma_8(Omega_{rm m}/0.3)^{0.5}$, and the parameters of the mass-richness scaling relation. We obtained $Omega_{rm m}=0.24^{+0.04}_{-0.03}$, $sigma_8=0.89^{+0.06}_{-0.05}$, $S_8=0.80^{+0.04}_{-0.04}$. The constraint on $S_8$ is consistent within 1$sigma$ with the results from WMAP and Planck. Furthermore, we got constraints on the cluster mass scaling relation in agreement with those obtained from a previous weak-lensing only analysis.
In this manuscript of the habilitation `a diriger des recherches (HDR), the author presents some of his work over the last ten years. The main topic of this thesis is cosmic shear, the distortion of images of distant galaxies due to weak gravitational lensing by the large-scale structure in the Universe. Cosmic shear has become a powerful probe into the nature of dark matter and the origin of the current accelerated expansion of the Universe. Over the last years, cosmic shear has evolved into a reliable and robust cosmological probe, providing measurements of the expansion history of the Universe and the growth of its structure. I review the principles of weak gravitational lensing and show how cosmic shear is interpreted in a cosmological context. Then I give an overview of weak-lensing measurements, and present observational results from the Canada-France Hawaii Lensing Survey (CFHTLenS), as well as the implications for cosmology. I conclude with an outlook on the various future surveys and missions, for which cosmic shear is one of the main science drivers, and discuss promising new weak cosmological lensing techniques for future observations.