Related papers: The strongest gravitational lenses: III. The order…
The Einstein radius plays a central role in lens studies as it characterises the strength of gravitational lensing. The distribution of Einstein radii near the upper cutoff should probe the largest mass concentrations in the universe.…
Based on techniques developed in the previous papers of this series, we investigate the impact of galaxy-cluster mergers on the order statistics of the largest Einstein radii. We show that the inclusion of mergers significantly shifts the…
Can the standard cosmological model be questioned on the basis of a single observed extreme galaxy cluster? Usually, the word extreme refers directly to cluster mass, which is not a direct observable and thus subject to substantial…
For more than a decade now, it has been controversial whether or not the high rate of giant gravitational arcs and the largest observed Einstein radii are consistent with the standard cosmological model. Recent studies indicate that mergers…
We present results from strong-lens modelling of 10,000 SDSS clusters, to establish the universal distribution of Einstein radii. Detailed lensing analyses have shown that the inner mass distribution of clusters can be accurately modelled…
In this paper we investigate the strong lensing statistics in galaxy clusters. We extract dark matter haloes from the Millennium-XXL simulation, compute their Einstein radius distribution, and find a very good agreement with Monte Carlo…
We present the results of a strong-lensing analysis of a complete sample of 12 very luminous X-ray clusters at $z>0.5$ using HST/ACS images. Our modelling technique has uncovered some of the largest known critical curves outlined by many…
The Einstein radius of a cluster provides a relatively model-independent measure of the mass density of a cluster within a projected radius of ~ 150 kpc, large enough to be relatively unaffected by gas physics. We show that the observed…
We assess a claim that observed galaxy clusters with mass ~10^14 Msun are more centrally concentrated than predicted in LCDM. We generate mock strong gravitational lensing observations, taking the lenses from a cosmological hydrodynamical…
A long-standing problem of strong lensing by galaxy clusters regards the observed high rate of giant gravitational arcs as compared to the predictions in the framework of the "standard" cosmological model. Recently, few other…
The statistics of Einstein radii for a sample of strong lenses can provide valuable constraints on the underlying mass distribution. The correct interpretation, however, relies critically on the modelling of the selection of the sample,…
Gravitational lens modeling is presented for the first discovered example of a three-component source for which each component is quadruply imaged. The lens is a massive galaxy member of the cluster Cl J0152.7-1357 at z ~ 0.84. Taking…
We identify 13 sets of multiply-lensed galaxies around MACS J0717.5+3745 ($z=0.546$), outlining a very large tangential critical curve of major axis $\sim2.8\arcmin$, filling the field of HST/ACS. The equivalent circular Einstein radius is…
We present a statistical analysis of a sample of 20 strong lensing clusters drawn from the Local Cluster Substructure Survey (LoCuSS), based on high resolution Hubble Space Telescope imaging of the cluster cores and follow-up spectroscopic…
We explore the halo structure of four gravitational lenses with well-observed, thin Einstein rings. We find that the gravitational potentials are well described by ellipsoidal density distributions in the sense that the best-fit…
The core mass of galaxy clusters is both an important anchor of the radial mass distribution profile and probe of structure formation. With thousands of strong lensing galaxy clusters being discovered by current and upcoming surveys,…
We use ray-tracing through the Millennium simulation to study how secondary matter structures along the line-of-sight and the stellar mass in galaxies affect strong cluster lensing, in particular the cross-section for giant arcs.…
Since galaxy clusters sit at the high-end of the mass function, the number of galaxy clusters both massive and concentrated enough to yield particularly large Einstein radii poses useful constraints on cosmological and structure formation…
We provide a quantitative assessment of the probability distribution function of the concentration parameter of galaxy clusters. We do so by using the probability distribution function of halo formation times, calculated by means of the…
In the era of large surveys, yielding thousands of galaxy clusters, efficient mass proxies at all scales are necessary in order to fully utilize clusters as cosmological probes. At the cores of strong lensing clusters, the Einstein radius…