English

Strong lensing analysis of A1689 from deep ACS images

Astrophysics 2009-11-10 v1

Abstract

ACS observations of massive lensing clusters permit an order of magnitude increase in the numbers of multiply-lensed background galaxies identified behind a given cluster. We have developed a code to take the pixels belonging to any given image and generate counter-images with full resolution, so that multiple systems are convincingly and exhaustively identified. Over 130 images of 35 multiply lensed galaxies are found behind A1689, including many radial arcs and also tiny counter-images projected on the center of mass. The derived mass profile is found to flatten steadily towards the center, like an NFW profile, with a mean slope d(log(Sigma))/d(log(r)) ~ -0.55 +/- 0.1, over the range r<250 kpc/h, which is somewhat steeper than predicted for such a massive halo. We also clearly see the expected geometric increase of bend angles with redshift, however, given the low redshift of A1689, z=0.18, the dependence on cosmological parameters is weak, but using higher redshift clusters from our GTO program we may derive a more competitive constraint.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0409322,
  title  = {Strong lensing analysis of A1689 from deep ACS images},
  author = {Keren Sharon and Tom J. Broadhurst and Narciso Benitez and Dan Coe and Holland Ford and ACS Science Team},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0409322},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

To appear in Proceedings of IAU Symposium 225: Impact of Gravitational Lensing on Cosmology, 6 pages