Related papers: Weak Lensing Mass Calibration with Shear and Magni…
Weak lensing shear estimation typically results in per galaxy statistical errors significantly larger than the sought after gravitational signal of only a few percent. These statistical errors are mostly a result of shape-noise -- an…
We study the bias and scatter in mass measurements of galaxy clusters resulting from fitting a spherically-symmetric Navarro, Frenk & White model to the reduced tangential shear profile measured in weak lensing observations. The reduced…
We aim at investigating potential biases in lensing and X-ray methods to measure the cluster mass profiles. We do so by performing realistic simulations of lensing and X-ray observations that are subsequently analyzed using observational…
Weak gravitational lensing has become an important method to determine the masses of galaxy clusters. The intrinsic shapes of the galaxies are a dominant source of uncertainty, but there are other limitations to the precision that can be…
Weak lensing of galaxies by large scale structure can potentially measure cosmological quantities as accurately as the cosmic microwave background (CMB). However, the relation between observables and fundamental parameters is more complex…
In this paper, we investigate the impact of higher-order distortions on the precise measurement of weak gravitational lensing shear and flexion. We begin by defining generalized higher-order distortions and outlining methods for measuring…
As the statistical power of galaxy weak lensing reaches percent level precision, large, realistic and robust simulations are required to calibrate observational systematics, especially given the increased importance of object blending as…
Microlensing promises to be a powerful tool for studying distant galaxies and quasars. As the data and models improve, there are systematic effects that need to be explored. Quasar continuum and broad-line regions may respond differently to…
WL measurements have well-known shear estimation biases, which can be partially corrected for with the use of image simulations. We present an analysis of simulated images that mimic HST/ACS observations of high-redshift galaxy clusters,…
The weak gravitational lensing of distant galaxies by large-scale structure is expected to become a powerful probe of dark energy. By measuring the ellipticities of large numbers of background galaxies, the subtle gravitational distortion…
Galaxy clusters are one of the most powerful probes to study extensions of General Relativity and the Standard Cosmological Model. Upcoming surveys like the Vera Rubin Observatory's Legacy Survey of Space and Time are expected to…
We study the impact of systematic errors on planned weak lensing surveys and compute the requirements on their contributions so that they are not a dominant source of the cosmological parameter error budget. The generic types of error we…
Weak lensing is one of the best available diagnostic tools to measure the total density profiles of distant clusters of galaxies. Unfortunately, it suffers from the well-known mass-sheet degeneracy, so that weak lensing analyses cannot lead…
Accurate measurement of the cluster mass function is a crucial element in efforts to constrain structure formation models, the normalisation of the matter power spectrum and the cosmological matter density, and the nature and evolution of…
The Shear TEsting Programme, STEP, is a collaborative project to improve the accuracy and reliability of all weak lensing measurements in preparation for the next generation of wide-field surveys. In this first STEP paper we present the…
With the advent of large-scale weak lensing surveys there is a need to understand how realistic, scale-dependent systematics bias cosmic shear and dark energy measurements, and how they can be removed. Here we describe how spatial…
We use weak-lensing shear measurements to determine the mean mass of optically selected galaxy clusters in Dark Energy Survey Science Verification data. In a blinded analysis, we split the sample of more than 8,000 redMaPPer clusters into…
Weak lensing is an important technique to determine the masses of galaxy groups. However, the distortion imprint on the shape of the background galaxies is affected by all the mass content along the line-of-sight. Using COSMOS shear mock…
Given a foreground galaxy-density field or shear field, its cross-correlation with the shear field from a background population of source galaxies scales with the source redshift in a way that is specific to lensing. Such a source-scaling…
We present a cosmic shear analysis of the 100 square degree weak lensing survey, combining data from the CFHTLS-Wide, RCS, VIRMOS-DESCART and GaBoDS surveys. Spanning ~100 square degrees, with a median source redshift z~0.78, this combined…