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Constraining dark energy from the abundance of weak gravitational lenses

Weinberg, Nevin N. and Kamionkowski, Marc (2003) Constraining dark energy from the abundance of weak gravitational lenses. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 341 (1). pp. 251-262. ISSN 0035-8711. doi:10.1046/j.1365-8711.2003.06421.x. https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20200610-122805835

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Abstract

We examine the prospect of using the observed abundance of weak gravitational lenses to constrain the equation-of-state parameter w = p/ρ of dark energy. Dark energy modifies the distance-redshift relation, the amplitude of the matter power spectrum, and the rate of structure growth. As a result, it affects the efficiency with which dark-matter concentrations produce detectable weak-lensing signals. Here we solve the spherical-collapse model with dark energy, clarifying some ambiguities found in the literature. We also provide fitting formulae for the non-linear overdensity at virialization and the linear-theory overdensity at collapse. We then compute the variation in the predicted weak-lens abundance with w. We find that the predicted redshift distribution and number count of weak lenses are highly degenerate in w and the present matter density Ω₀. If we fix Ω₀ the number count of weak lenses for w = −2/3 is a factor of ∼2 smaller than for the Λ cold dark matter (CDM) model w = −1. However, if we allow Ω₀ to vary with w such that the amplitude of the matter power spectrum as measured by the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) matches that obtained from the X-ray cluster abundance, the decrease in the predicted lens abundance is less than 25 per cent for −1 ⩽ w < −0.4. We show that a more promising method for constraining dark energy - one that is largely unaffected by the Ω₀−w degeneracy as well as uncertainties in observational noise - is to compare the relative abundance of virialized X-ray lensing clusters with the abundance of non-virialized, X-ray underluminous, lensing haloes. For aperture sizes of ∼15 arcmin, the predicted ratio of the non-virialized to virialized lenses is greater than 40 per cent and varies by ∼20 per cent between w = −1 and −0.6. Overall, we find that, if all other weak-lensing parameters are fixed, a survey must cover at least ∼40 deg² in order for the weak-lens number count to differentiate a ΛCDM cosmology from a dark-energy model with w = −0.9 at the 3σ level. If, on the other hand, we take into account uncertainties in the lensing parameters, then the non-virialized lens fraction provides the most robust constraint on w, requiring ∼50 deg² of sky coverage in order to differentiate a ΛCDM model from a w = −0.6 model to 3σ.


Item Type:Article
Related URLs:
URLURL TypeDescription
https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-8711.2003.06421.xDOIArticle
https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2003MNRAS.341..251W/abstractADSArticle
http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0210134arXivDiscussion Paper
ORCID:
AuthorORCID
Weinberg, Nevin N.0000-0001-9194-2084
Kamionkowski, Marc0000-0001-7018-2055
Additional Information:© 2003 RAS. Accepted 2003 January 8. Received 2003 January 7; in original form 2002 October 8. We thank R. Caldwell for helpful suggestions and an anonymous referee for useful comments that have improved the presentation of this paper. NNW acknowledges the support of an NSF Graduate Fellowship. This work was supported by NSF AST−0096023, NASA NAG5-9821, and DoE DE-FG03-92-ER40701.
Funders:
Funding AgencyGrant Number
NSF Graduate Research FellowshipUNSPECIFIED
NSFAST-0096023
NASANAG5-9821
Department of Energy (DOE)DE-FG03-92-ER40701
Subject Keywords:gravitational lensing, galaxies: clusters: general, cosmology: miscellaneous
Issue or Number:1
DOI:10.1046/j.1365-8711.2003.06421.x
Record Number:CaltechAUTHORS:20200610-122805835
Persistent URL:https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20200610-122805835
Official Citation:Nevin N. Weinberg, Marc Kamionkowski, Constraining dark energy from the abundance of weak gravitational lenses, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 341, Issue 1, May 2003, Pages 251–262, https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-8711.2003.06421.x
Usage Policy:No commercial reproduction, distribution, display or performance rights in this work are provided.
ID Code:103824
Collection:CaltechAUTHORS
Deposited By: Rebecca Minjarez
Deposited On:23 Jun 2020 19:50
Last Modified:16 Nov 2021 18:25

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