Gravitational Lensing and the Hubble Deep Field
Abstract
We calculate the expected number of multiply-imaged galaxies in the Hubble Deep Field (HDF), using photometric redshift information for galaxies with m_I < 27 that were detected in all four HDF passbands. A comparison of these expectations with the observed number of strongly lensed galaxies constrains the current value of Omega_m-Omega_Lambda, where Omega_m is the mean mass density of the universe and Omega_Lambda is the normalized cosmological constant. Based on current estimates of the HDF luminosity function and associated uncertainties in individual parameters, our 95% confidence lower limit on Omega_m-Omega_Lambda ranges between -0.44, if there are no strongly lensed galaxies in the HDF, and -0.73, if there are two strongly lensed galaxies in the HDF. If the only lensed galaxy in the HDF is the one presently viable candidate, then, in a flat universe (Omega_m+Omega_Lambda=1), Omega_Lambda < 0.79 (95% C.L.). These limits are compatible with estimates based on high-redshift supernovae and with previous limits based on gravitational lensing.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/9811115,
title = {Gravitational Lensing and the Hubble Deep Field},
author = {Asantha R. Cooray and Jean M. Quashnock and M. Coleman Miller},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/9811115},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
4 pages (aipproc.sty), 2 figures. To appear in "After the dark ages: when galaxies were young," proceedings of the 9th Annual October Astrophysics Conference, eds. S. S. Holt & E. P. Smith