Related papers: Effects of large-scale structure on the accuracy o…
Weak gravitational lensing provides a direct way to study the mass distribution of clusters of galaxies at large radii. Unfortunately, large scale structure along the line of sight also contributes to the lensing signal, and consequently…
We quantify the uncertainty in weak lensing mass estimates of clusters of galaxies, caused by distant (uncorrelated) large scale structure along the line of sight. We find that the effect is fairly small for deep observations (20<R<26) of…
Weak gravitational lensing has been used extensively in the past decade to constrain the masses of galaxy clusters, and is the most promising observational technique for providing the mass calibration necessary for precision cosmology with…
Hierarchical theories of structure formation predict that clusters of galaxies should be embedded in a web like structure, with filaments emanating from them to large distances. The amount of mass contained within such filaments near a…
Weak gravitational lensing of background galaxies by foreground clusters offers an excellent opportunity to measure cluster masses directly without using gas as a probe. One source of noise which seems difficult to avoid is large scale…
Upcoming and ongoing large area weak lensing surveys will also discover large samples of galaxy clusters. Accurate and precise masses of galaxy clusters are of major importance for cosmology, for example, in establishing well calibrated…
Despite consistent progress in numerical simulations, the observable properties of galaxy clusters are difficult to predict ab initio. It is therefore important to compare both theoretical and observational results to a direct measure of…
In modern hierarchical theories of structure formation, rich clusters of galaxies form at the vertices of a weblike distribution of matter, with filaments emanating from them to large distances and with smaller objects forming and draining…
Since the strength of weak gravitational lensing is proportional to the mass along the line of sight, it might be possible to use lensing data to find the masses of individual dark matter clusters. Unfortunately, the effect on the lensing…
We study the effects of large-scale density fluctuations on strong gravitational lensing. Previous studies have focused mostly on weak lensing, since large-scale structure alone cannot produce multiple images. When a galaxy or cluster acts…
Using mock observations of numerical simulations, we investigate the completeness and efficiency of searches for galaxy clusters in weak lensing surveys. While it is possible to search for high mass objects directly as density enhancements…
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…
Weak gravitational lensing observations of galaxy clusters are sensitive to all mass along the line-of-sight, introducing systematic and additional statistical uncertainties due to intervening structures. We quantify their impact on the…
Weak gravitational lensing can be used to directly measure the mass along a line-of-sight without any dependence on the dynamical state of the mass, and thus can be used to measure the masses of clusters even if they are not relaxed. One…
Weak gravitational lensing, the deflection of light by mass, is one of the best tools to constrain the growth of cosmic structure with time and reveal the nature of dark energy. I discuss the sources of systematic uncertainty in weak…
The distribution of mass on galaxy cluster scales is an important test of structure formation scenarios, providing constraints on the nature of dark matter itself. Several techniques have been used to probe the mass distributions of…
Intrinsic variations of the projected density profiles of clusters of galaxies at fixed mass are a source of uncertainty for cluster weak lensing. We present a semi-analytical model to account for this effect, based on a combination of…
Weak gravitational lensing is an important tool to estimate the masses of galaxy clusters, as it allows us to directly access their projected surface mass density along the line-of-sight (LOS) in a manner largely independent of their…
The surface mass density of a cluster of galaxies, and thus its total mass, can be estimated from its lens magnification. The magnification can be determined from the variation in number counts of its background galaxies. In the weak…
The technique of weak-lensing aperture mass densitometry, so called the zeta-statistic, has recently been popular in actual observations for measurement of individual cluster mass. It has however been anticipated that the line-of-sight…