Gravitational lensing - the deflection of light rays by gravitating matter - has become a major tool in the armoury of the modern cosmologist. Proposed nearly a hundred years ago as a key feature of Einsteins theory of General Relativity, we trace th
e historical development since its verification at a solar eclipse in 1919. Einstein was apparently cautious about its practical utility and the subject lay dormant observationally for nearly 60 years. Nonetheless there has been rapid progress over the past twenty years. The technique allows astronomers to chart the distribution of dark matter on large and small scales thereby testing predictions of the standard cosmological model which assumes dark matter comprises a massive weakly-interacting particle. By measuring distances and tracing the growth of dark matter structure over cosmic time, gravitational lensing also holds great promise in determining whether the dark energy, postulated to explain the accelerated cosmic expansion, is a vacuum energy density or a failure of General Relativity on large scales. We illustrate the wide range of applications which harness the power of gravitational lensing, from searches for the earliest galaxies magnified by massive clusters to those for extrasolar planets which temporarily brighten a background star. We summarise the future prospects with dedicated ground and space-based facilities designed to exploit this remarkable physical phenomenon.
We present MOSFIRE spectroscopy of 13 candidate z~8 galaxies selected as Y-dropouts as part of the BoRG pure parallel survey. We detect no significant lya emission (our median 1-sigma rest frame equivalent width sensitivity is in the range 2-16 AA).
Using the Bayesian framework derived in a previous paper, we perform a rigorous analysis of a statistical subsample of non-detections for ten Y-dropouts, including data from the literature, to study the cosmic evolution of the lya emission of Lyman Break Galaxies. We find that lya emission is suppressed at z~8 by at least a factor of three with respect to z~6 continuing the downward trend found by previous studies of z-dropouts at z~7. This finding suggests a dramatic evolution in the conditions of the intergalactic or circumgalactic media in just 300 Myrs, consistent with the onset of reionization or changes in the physical conditions of the first generations of starforming regions.
Strong lensing gravitational time delays are a powerful and cost effective probe of dark energy. Recent studies have shown that a single lens can provide a distance measurement with 6-7 % accuracy (including random and systematic uncertainties), prov
ided sufficient data are available to determine the time delay and reconstruct the gravitational potential of the deflector. Gravitational-time delays are a low redshift (z~0-2) probe and thus allow one to break degeneracies in the interpretation of data from higher-redshift probes like the cosmic microwave background in terms of the dark energy equation of state. Current studies are limited by the size of the sample of known lensed quasars, but this situation is about to change. Even in this decade, wide field imaging surveys are likely to discover thousands of lensed quasars, enabling the targeted study of ~100 of these systems and resulting in substantial gains in the dark energy figure of merit. In the next decade, a further order of magnitude improvement will be possible with the 10000 systems expected to be detected and measured with LSST and Euclid. To fully exploit these gains, we identify three priorities. First, support for the development of software required for the analysis of the data. Second, in this decade, small robotic telescopes (1-4m in diameter) dedicated to monitoring of lensed quasars will transform the field by delivering accurate time delays for ~100 systems. Third, in the 2020s, LSST will deliver 1000s of time delays; the bottleneck will instead be the aquisition and analysis of high resolution imaging follow-up. Thus, the top priority for the next decade is to support fast high resolution imaging capabilities, such as those enabled by the James Webb Space Telescope and next generation adaptive optics systems on large ground based telescopes.
Spectroscopic confirmation of galaxies at z~7 and above has been extremely difficult, owing to a drop in intensity of Ly-alpha emission in comparison with samples at z~6. This crucial finding could potentially signal the ending of cosmic reionization
. However it is based on small datasets, often incomplete and heterogeneous in nature. We introduce a flexible Bayesian framework, useful to interpret such evidence. Within this framework, we implement two simple phenomenological models: a smooth one, where the distribution of Ly-alpha is attenuated by a factor es with respect to z~6; a patchy one where a fraction ep is absorbed/non-emitted while the rest is unabsorbed. From a compilation of 39 observed z~7 galaxies we find es=0.69+-0.12 and ep=0.66+-0.16. The models can be used to compute fractions of emitters above any equivalent width W. For W>25AA, we find X^{25}_{z=7}=0.37+-0.11 (0.14+-0.06) for galaxies fainter (brighter) than M_{UV}=-20.25 for the patchy model, consistent with previous work, but with smaller uncertainties by virtue of our full use of the data. At z~8 we combine new deep (5-sigma flux limit 10^{-17}ergs^{-1}cm^{-2}) Keck-NIRSPEC observations of a bright Y-dropout identified by our BoRG Survey, with those of three objects from the literature and find that the inference is inconclusive. We compute predictions for future near-infrared spectroscopic surveys and show that it is challenging but feasible to constrain the distribution of Ly-alpha emitters at z~8 and distinguish between models.
The relative contribution of baryons and dark matter to the inner regions of spiral galaxies provides critical clues to their formation and evolution, but it is generally difficult to determine. For spiral galaxies that are strong gravitational lense
s, however, the combination of lensing and kinematic observations can be used to break the disk-halo degeneracy. In turn, such data constrain fundamental parameters such as i) the mass density profile slope and axis ratio of the dark matter halo, and by comparison with dark matter-only numerical simulations the modifications imposed by baryons; ii) the mass in stars and therefore the overall star formation efficiency, and the amount of feedback; iii) by comparison with stellar population synthesis models, the normalization of the stellar initial mass function. In this first paper of a series, we present a sample of 16 secure, 1 probable, and 6 possible strong lensing spiral galaxies, for which multi-band high-resolution images and rotation curves were obtained using the Hubble Space Telescope and Keck-II Telescope as part of the Sloan WFC Edge-on Late-type Lens Survey (SWELLS). The sample includes 8 newly discovered secure systems. [abridged] We find that the SWELLS sample of secure lenses spans a broad range of morphologies (from lenticular to late-type spiral), spectral types (quantified by Halpha emission), and bulge to total stellar mass ratio (0.22-0.85), while being limited to M_*>10^{10.5} M_sun. The SWELLS sample is thus well-suited for exploring the relationship between dark and luminous matter in a broad range of galaxies. We find that the deflector galaxies obey the same size-mass relation as that of a comparison sample of elongated non-lens galaxies selected from the SDSS survey. We conclude that the SWELLS sample is consistent with being representative of the overall population of high-mass high-inclination disky galaxies.
We determine an absolute calibration of the initial mass function (IMF) of early-type galaxies, by studying a sample of 56 gravitational lenses identified by the SLACS Survey. Under the assumption of standard Navarro, Frenk & White dark matter halos,
a combination of lensing, dynamical, and stellar population synthesis models is used to disentangle the stellar and dark matter contribution for each lens. We define an IMF mismatch parameter alpha=M*(L+D)/M*(SPS) as the ratio of stellar mass inferred by a joint lensing and dynamical models (M*(L+D)) to the current stellar mass inferred from stellar populations synthesis models (M*(SPS)). We find that a Salpeter IMF provides stellar masses in agreement with those inferred by lensing and dynamical models (<log alpha>=0.00+-0.03+-0.02), while a Chabrier IMF underestimates them (<log alpha>=0.25+-0.03+-0.02). A tentative trend is found, in the sense that alpha appears to increase with galaxy velocity dispersion. Taken at face value, this result would imply a non universal IMF, perhaps dependent on metallicity, age, or abundance ratios of the stellar populations. Alternatively, the observed trend may imply non-universal dark matter halos with inner density slope increasing with velocity dispersion. While the degeneracy between the two interpretations cannot be broken without additional information, the data imply that massive early-type galaxies cannot have both a universal IMF and universal dark matter halos.
We study the relation between the internal structure of early-type galaxies and their environment using 70 strong gravitational lenses from the Sloan ACS Lens Survey. The Sloan database is used to determine two measures of overdensity of galaxies aro
und each lens: the projected number density of galaxies inside the tenth nearest neighbor (Sigma_{10}) and within a cone of radius one h^{-1} Mpc (D_1). Our main results are: 1) The average overdensity is somewhat larger than unity, consistent with lenses preferring overdense environments as expected for massive early-type galaxies (12/70 lenses are in known groups/clusters). 2) The distribution of overdensities is indistinguishable from that of twin non-lens galaxies selected from SDSS to have the same redshift and stellar velocity dispersion sigma_*. Thus, within our errors, lens galaxies are an unbiased population, and the SLACS results can be generalized to the overall population of early-type galaxies. 3) Typical contributions from external mass distribution are no more than a few per cent, reaching 10-20% (~0.05-0.10 external convergence) only in the most extreme overdensities. 4) No significant correlation between overdensity and slope of the mass density profile of the lens is found. 5) Satellite galaxies (those with a more luminous companion) have marginally steeper mass density profiles than central galaxies (those without). This result suggests that tidal stripping may affect the mass structure of early-type galaxies down to kpc scales probed by strong lensing, when they fall into larger structures [ABRIDGED].
We combine high-resolution images in four optical/infra-red bands, obtained with the laser guide star adaptive optics system on the Keck Telescope and with the Hubble Space Telescope, to study the gravitational lens system SDSSJ0737+3216 (lens redshi
ft 0.3223, source redshift 0.5812). We show that (under favorable observing conditions) ground-based images are comparable to those obtained with HST in terms of precision in the determination of the parameters of both the lens mass distribution and the background source. We also quantify the systematic errors associated with both the incomplete knowledge of the PSF, and the uncertain process of lens galaxy light removal, and find that similar accuracy can be achieved with Keck LGSAO as with HST. We then exploit this well-calibrated combination of optical and gravitational telescopes to perform a multi-wavelength study of the source galaxy at 0.01 effective resolution. We find the Sersic index to be indicative of a disk-like object, but the measured half-light radius (0.59+-0.007+-0.1 kpc) and stellar mass (2.0+-1.0+-0.8e9Msun) place it more than three sigma away from the local disk size-mass relation. The SDSSJ0737+3216 source has the characteristics of the most compact faint blue galaxies studied, and has comparable size and mass to dwarf early-type galaxies in the local universe. With the aid of gravitational telescopes to measure individual objects brightness profiles to 10% accuracy, the study of the high-redshift size-mass relation may be extended by an order of magnitude or more beyond existing surveys at the low-mass end, thus providing a new observational test of galaxy formation models.
We combine Hubble Space Telescope images of a sample of 20 Seyfert galaxies at z=0.36 with spectroscopic information from the Keck Telescope to determine the black hole mass - spheroid luminosity relation (M-L), the Fundamental Plane (FP) of the host
galaxies and the M-sigma relation. Assuming pure luminosity evolution, we find that the host spheroids had smaller luminosity and stellar velocity dispersion than today for a fixed M. The offsets correspond to Delta log L_B,0=0.40+-0.11+-0.15 (Delta log M = 0.51+-0.14+-0.19) and Delta log sigma = 0.13+-0.03+-0.05 (Delta log M = 0.54+-0.12+-0.21), respectively for the M-L and M-sigma relation. A detailed analysis of known systematic errors and selection effects shows that they cannot account for the observed offset. The data are inconsistent with pure luminosity evolution and the existence of universal and tight scaling relations. To obey the three local scaling relations by z=0 the distant spheroids have to grow their stellar mass by approximately 60% (Delta log M_sph=0.20+-0.14) in the next 4 billion years. The measured evolution can be expressed as M/ M_sph ~ (1+z)^{1.5+-1.0}. Based on the disturbed morphologies of a fraction of the sample (6/20) we suggest collisional mergers with disk-dominated systems as evolutionary mechanism.
