Related papers: A General Framework for Removing Point Spread Func…
(Abridged) We investigate and quantify the impact of finite simulation volume on weak lensing two- and four-point statistics. These {\it finite support} (FS) effects are modelled for several estimators, simulation box sizes and source…
Reconstruction of the point spread function (PSF) is a critical process in weak lensing measurement. We develop a real-data based and galaxy-oriented pipeline to compare the performances of various PSF reconstruction schemes. Making use of…
High-fidelity simulated astronomical images are an important tool in developing and measuring the performance of image-processing algorithms, particularly for high precision measurements of cosmic shear -- correlated distortions of images…
The spatial variation of the colour of a galaxy may introduce a bias in the measurement of its shape if the PSF profile depends on wavelength. We study how this bias depends on the properties of the PSF and the galaxies themselves. The bias…
We describe here a new full 2-D parameterization of the PSFs of the three XMM-Newton EPIC telescopes as a function of instrument, energy, off-axis angle and azimuthal angle, covering the whole field-of-view of the three EPIC detectors. It…
Large area lensing surveys are expected to make it possible to use cosmic shear tomography as a tool to severely constrain cosmological parameters. To this end, one typically relies on second order statistics such as the two - point…
In order to reach the required performance of Stage-III and IV weak lensing surveys, cosmic shear measurements have to rely on external simulations to calibrate residual biases. Over the years, several techniques have been developed to…
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…
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…
We calculate the systematic errors in the weak gravitational lensing power spectrum which would be caused by spatially varying calibration (i.e. multiplicative) errors, such as might arise from uncorrected seeing or extinction variations.…
Given a galaxy image, one cannot simply measure its flexion. An image's spin one and three shape properties, typically associated with F- and G-flexion, are actually complicated functions of the galaxy's intrinsic shape and the telescope's…
Our aim is to quantify the impact of systematic effects on the inference of cosmological parameters from cosmic shear. We present an end-to-end approach that introduces sources of bias in a modelled weak lensing survey on a galaxy-by-galaxy…
Weak lensing by large-scale structure is a powerful probe of cosmology if the apparent alignments in the shapes of distant galaxies can be accurately measured. We study the performance of a fully data-driven approach, based on…
The advent of Stage IV weak lensing surveys will open up a new era in precision cosmology. These experiments will offer more than an order-of-magnitude leap in precision over existing surveys, and we must ensure that the accuracy of our…
We present a tomographic cosmological weak lensing analysis of the HST COSMOS Survey. Applying our lensing-optimized data reduction, principal component interpolation for the ACS PSF, and improved modelling of charge-transfer inefficiency,…
Stage IV weak lensing experiments will offer more than an order of magnitude leap in precision. We must therefore ensure that our analyses remain accurate in this new era. Accordingly, previously ignored systematic effects must be…
We present first results from the third GRavitational lEnsing Accuracy Testing (GREAT3) challenge, the third in a sequence of challenges for testing methods of inferring weak gravitational lensing shear distortions from simulated galaxy…
Validating modeling choices through simulated analyses and quantifying the impact of different systematic effects will form a major computational bottleneck in the preparation for 3$\times$2 analysis with Stage-IV surveys such as Vera Rubin…
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…
The Shear TEsting Programme (STEP) is a collaborative project to improve the accuracy and reliability of weak lensing measurement, in preparation for the next generation of wide-field surveys. We review sixteen current and emerging shear…