No Arabic abstract
A recently discovered quadruply-imaged QSO, SDSS J1004+4112 (Inada et al. 2003; Oguri et al. 2004) in the core of a $z=0.68$ galaxy cluster has an unprecedented image separation of ~13. This lens gives us a unique opportunity to study the detailed mass distribution in the central regions of this cluster. We present free-form reconstructions of the lens using recently developed methods. The projected mass within 100 kpc is well-constrained as 5+/-1 x 10^{13} M_solar, consistent with previous simpler models. Unlike previous work, however, we are able to detect structures in the lens associated with cluster galaxies. We estimate the mass associated with these galaxies, and show that they contribute not more than about 10% of the total cluster mass within 100 kpc. Typical galaxy masses, combined with typical luminosities yield a rough estimate of their mass-to-light ratio, which is ~<10, implying that these galaxies consist mostly of stars, and possess little dark matter.
We impose the first strong-lensing constraints on a wide class of modified gravity models where an extra field that modifies gravity also couples to photons (either directly or indirectly through a coupling with baryons) and thus modifies lensing. We use the nonsingular isothermal ellipsoid (NIE) profile as an effective potential, which produces flat galactic rotation curves. If a concrete modified gravity model gives a flat rotation curve, then the parameter $Gamma$ that characterizes the lensing effect must take some definite value. We find that $Gamma = 1.24pm0.65$ at $1sigma$, consistent with general relativity ($Gamma = 1$). This constrains the parameter space in some recently proposed models.
Context: The number of known strong gravitational lenses is expected to grow substantially in the next few years. The statistical combination of large samples of lenses has the potential of providing strong constraints on the inner structure of galaxies. Aims: We investigate to what extent we can calibrate stellar mass measurements and constrain the average dark matter density profile of galaxies by statistically combining strong lensing data from thousands of lenses. Methods: We generate mock samples of axisymmetric lenses. We assume that, for each lens, we have measurements of two image positions of a strongly lensed background source, as well as magnification information from full surface brightness modelling, and a stellar population synthesis-based estimate of the lens stellar mass. We then fit models describing the distribution of the stellar population synthesis mismatch parameter $alpha_{sps}$ (the ratio between the true stellar mass and the stellar population synthesis-based estimate) and dark matter density profile of the population of lenses to an ensemble of 1000 mock lenses. Results: The average $alpha_{sps}$, projected dark matter mass and dark matter density slope can be obtained with great precision and accuracy, compared with current constraints. A flexible model and the knowledge of the lens detection efficiency as a function of image configuration are required in order to avoid a biased inference. Conclusions: Statistical strong lensing inferences from upcoming surveys have the potential to calibrate stellar mass measurements and to constrain the inner dark matter density profile of massive galaxies.
By stacking an ensemble of strong lensing clusters, we demonstrate the feasibility of placing constraints on the dark energy equation of state. This is achieved by using multiple images of sources at two or more distinct redshift planes. The sample of smooth clusters in our simulations is based on observations of massive clusters and the distribution of background galaxies is constructed using the Hubble Deep Field. Our source distribution reproduces the observed redshift distribution of multiply imaged sources in Abell 1689. The cosmology recovery depends on the number of image families with known spectroscopic redshifts and the number of stacked clusters. Our simulations suggest that constraints comparable to those derived from other competing established techniques on a constant dark energy equation of state can be obtained using 10 to 40 clusters with 5 or more families of multiple images. We have also studied the observational errors in the image redshifts and positions. We find that spectroscopic redshifts and high resolution {it Hubble Space Telescope} images are required to eliminate confidence contour relaxation relative to the ideal case in our simulations. This suggests that the dark energy equation of state, and other cosmological parameters, can be constrained with existing {it Hubble Space Telescope} images of lensing clusters coupled with dedicated ground-based arc spectroscopy.
Measurements of stellar properties of galaxies when the universe was less than one billion years old yield some of the only observational constraints of the onset of star formation. We present here the inclusion of textit{Spitzer}/IRAC imaging in the spectral energy distribution fitting of the seven highest-redshift galaxy candidates selected from the emph{Hubble Space Telescope} imaging of the Reionization Lensing Cluster Survey (RELICS). We find that for 6/8 textit{HST}-selected $zgtrsim8$ sources, the $zgtrsim8$ solutions are still strongly preferred over $zsim$1-2 solutions after the inclusion of textit{Spitzer} fluxes, and two prefer a $zsim 7$ solution, which we defer to a later analysis. We find a wide range of intrinsic stellar masses ($5times10^6 M_{odot}$ -- $4times10^9$ $M_{odot}$), star formation rates (0.2-14 $M_{odot}rm yr^{-1}$), and ages (30-600 Myr) among our sample. Of particular interest is Abell1763-1434, which shows evidence of an evolved stellar population at $zsim8$, implying its first generation of star formation occurred just $< 100$ Myr after the Big Bang. SPT0615-JD, a spatially resolved $zsim10$ candidate, remains at its high redshift, supported by deep textit{Spitzer}/IRAC data, and also shows some evidence for an evolved stellar population. Even with the lensed, bright apparent magnitudes of these $z gtrsim 8$ candidates (H = 26.1-27.8 AB mag), only the textit{James Webb Space Telescope} will be able further confirm the presence of evolved stellar populations early in the universe.
We measure the luminosity profiles of 16 brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) at $0.4 < z < 0.8$ using high resolution F160W NICMOS and F814W WFPC2 HST imaging. The heterogeneous sample is drawn from a variety of surveys: seven from clusters in the Einstein Medium Sensitivity Survey, five from the Las Campanas Distant Cluster Survey and its northern hemisphere precursor, and the remaining four from traditional optical surveys. We find that the surface brightness profiles of all but three of these BCGs are well described by a standard de Vaucouleurs ($r^{1/4}$) profile out to at least $sim2r_{e}$ and that the biweight-estimated NICMOS effective radius of our high redshift BCGs ($r_{e} = 8.3pm 1.4$ kpc for $H_{0} = 80$ km s$^{-1}$ Mpc$^{-1}$, $Omega_{m} = 0.2, Omega_Lambda = 0.0$) is $sim 2$ times smaller than that measured for a local BCG sample. If high redshift BCGs are in dynamical equilibrium and satisfy the same scaling relations as low redshift ones, this change in size would correspond to a mass growth of a factor of 2 since $z sim 0.5$. However, the biweight-estimated WFPC2 effective radius of our sample is 18 $pm $ 5.1 kpc, which is fully consistent with the local sample. While we can rule out mass accretion rates higher than a factor of 2 in our sample, the discrepancy between our NICMOS and WFPC2 results, which after various tests we describe appears to be physical, does not yet allow us to place strong constraints on accretion rates below that level.