Defining a weak lensing experiment in space
Abstract
This paper describes the definition of a typical next-generation space-based weak gravitational lensing experiment. We first adopt a set of top-level science requirements from the literature, based on the scale and depth of the galaxy sample, and the avoidance of systematic effects in the measurements which would bias the derived shear values. We then identify and categorise the contributing factors to the systematic effects, combining them with the correct weighting, in such a way as to fit within the top-level requirements. We present techniques which permit the performance to be evaluated and explore the limits at which the contributing factors can be managed. Besides the modelling biases resulting from the use of weighted moments, the main contributing factors are the reconstruction of the instrument point spread function (PSF), which is derived from the stellar images on the image, and the correction of the charge transfer inefficiency (CTI) in the CCD detectors caused by radiation damage.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1210.7691,
title = {Defining a weak lensing experiment in space},
author = {Mark Cropper and Henk Hoekstra and Thomas Kitching and Richard Massey and Jerome Amiaux and Lance Miller and Yannick Mellier and Jason Rhodes and Barnaby Rowe and Sandrine Pires and Curtis Saxton and Roberto Scaramella},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1210.7691},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
26 pages, 12 figures. Version 2 contains changes from the refereeing with a useful clarification of points in section 2.2, leading to an added section 2.3, while section 3.1 has been slightly expanded. There are no changes to the results. Other minor edits have been made, and the author list slightly amended. Accepted by MNRAS. See companion (theory) paper Massey et al (2013) MNRAS, 429, 661