Related papers: Towards solving model bias in cosmic shear forward…
We present a three dimensional cosmic shear analysis of the Hubble Space Telescope COSMOS survey, the largest ever optical imaging program performed in space. We have measured the shapes of galaxies for the tell-tale distortions caused by…
The ratio of the average tangential shear signal of different weak lensing source populations around the same lens galaxies, also known as a shear ratio, provides an important test of lensing systematics and a potential source of…
We develop a method for performing a weak lensing analysis using only measurements of galaxy position angles. By analysing the statistical properties of the galaxy orientations given a known intrinsic ellipticity distribution, we show that…
The light we observe from distant astrophysical objects including supernovae and quasars allows us to determine large distances in terms of a cosmological model. Despite the success of the standard cosmological model in fitting the data,…
We explore the possibility that an intrinsic correlation between galaxy ellipticities arising during the galaxy formation process may account for part of the shear signal recently reported by several groups engaged in weak lensing surveys.…
We present a combined cosmic shear analysis of the modeling of line-of-sight distortions on strongly lensed extended arcs and galaxy shape measurements in the COSMOS field. We develop a framework to predict the covariance of strong lensing…
We derive expressions, in terms of "polar shapelets", for the image distortion operations associated with weak gravitational lensing. Shear causes galaxy shapes to become elongated, and is sensitive to the second derivative of the projected…
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…
Current theories of structure formation predict specific density profiles of galaxy dark matter haloes, and with weak gravitational lensing we can probe these profiles on several scales. On small scales, higher-order shape distortions known…
We describe and test the pipeline used to measure the weak lensing shear signal from the Kilo Degree Survey (KiDS). It includes a novel method of `self-calibration' that partially corrects for the effect of noise bias. We also discuss the…
Weak lensing can be observed through a number of effects on the images of distant galaxies; their shapes are sheared, their sizes and fluxes (magnitudes) are magnified and their positions on the sky are modified by the lensing field. Galaxy…
Gauss-Hermite and Gauss-Laguerre ("shapelet") decompositions of images have become important tools in galaxy modeling, particularly for the purpose of extracting ellipticity and morphological information from astronomical data. However, the…
Weak-lensing shear estimates show a troublesome dependence on the apparent brightness of the galaxies used to measure the ellipticity: In several studies, the amplitude of the inferred shear falls sharply with decreasing source…
Cosmic shear holds great promise for a precision independent measurement of $\Omega\rm_m$, the mass density of the universe relative to the critical density. The signal is expected to be weak, so a thorough understanding of systematic…
When a luminous source is extended, its distortions by weak gravitational lensing are richer than a mere combination of magnification and shear. In a recent work, we proposed an elegant formalism based on complex analysis to describe and…
Most of the matter in the universe is not luminous and can be observed directly only through its gravitational effect. An emerging technique called weak gravitational lensing uses background galaxies to reveal the foreground dark matter…
The statistical properties of the ellipticities of galaxy images depend on how galaxies form and evolve, and therefore constrain models of galaxy morphology, which are key to the removal of the intrinsic alignment contamination of…
We present the current status of cosmic shear studies and their implications on cosmological models. Theoretical expectations and observational results are discussed in the framework of standard cosmology and CDM scenarios. The potentials…
The next generation of weak lensing probes can place strong constraints on cosmological parameters by measuring the mass distribution and geometry of the low redshift universe. We show that a future all-sky tomographic cosmic shear survey…
We propose to use a simple observable, the fractional area of "hot spots" in weak lensing mass maps which are detected with high significance, to determine background cosmological parameters. Because these high-shear regions are directly…