Related papers: An Extended, Physically Calibrated FP for Elliptic…
If the statistics of quasar lensing are to be used to constrain the cosmological model, the various potential systematic uncertainties in the deflector population must be accounted for. One ambiguity in the lensing properties of the…
In models of galaxy formation in a hierarchical Universe, elliptical galaxies form through the merging of smaller disk systems. These models yield a number of testable predictions if reliable techniques for determining the relative ages and…
We have carried out computer simulations to study the effect of merging on the fundamental plane (FP) relation. Initially, systems are spherical Jaffe models following a simple scaling relation (M/R_e^2 = constant). They have been put on…
Intrinsic alignments of galaxies are recognised as one of the most important systematic in weak lensing surveys on small angular scales. In this paper we investigate ellipticity correlation functions that are measured separately on…
We carry out numerical simulations of dissipationless major mergers of elliptical galaxies using initial galaxy models that consist of a dark matter halo and a stellar bulge with properties consistent with the observed fundamental plane. By…
The control of systematic effects when measuring galaxy shapes is one of the main challenges for cosmic shear analyses. In this context, we study the fundamental limitations on shear accuracy due to the measurement of the Point Spread…
This paper is the first in a series in which we present the results of an ESO Large Program on the kinematics and internal dynamics of dwarf elliptical galaxies (dEs). We investigate the relations between the parameters that quantify the…
Studies of the Fundamental Plane of early-type galaxies, from small to intermediate redshifts, are often carried out under the guiding principle that the Fundamental Plane reflects the existence of an underlying mass-luminosity relation for…
We investigate the ellipticity of the point-spread function (PSF) produced by imaging an unresolved source with a telescope, subject to the effects of atmospheric turbulence. It is important to quantify these effects in order to understand…
The fraction of high-redshift sources which are multiply-imaged by intervening galaxies is strongly dependent on the cosmological constant, and so can be a useful probe of the cosmological model. However its power is limited by various…
There are observational and theoretical indications that both the visible (stars) and the dark matter density distributions in elliptical galaxies increase significantly up to the galactic center. I present here some analytical results…
We present equations for the gravitational lensing flexion expected for an elliptical lens mass distribution. These can be reduced to one-dimensional finite integrals, thus saving significant computing time over a full two-dimensional…
High-resolution numerical simulations of galaxy mergers are analysed. The global structure and isophotal shapes of the merger remnants are in good agreement with the observations. Whereas equal-mass mergers lead to anisotropic, boxy…
A standard paradigm is now available for the recent evolution (z < 10) of structure on galactic and larger scales. Most of the matter is assumed to be dark and dissipationless and to cluster hierarchically from gaussian initial conditions.…
The subject of this paper is to build a physical model describing shape and size correlations of galaxies due to weak gravitational lensing and due to direct tidal interaction of elliptical galaxies with gravitational fields sourced by the…
Aims. We investigated the gravitational effects of a scalar field within scalar-tensor gravity as an alternative to dark matter. Motivated by chameleon, symmetron and f(R)-gravity models, we studied a phenomenological scenario where the…
We investigate the viability of f(R) theories in the framework of the Palatini approach as solutions to the problem of the observed accelerated expansion of the universe. Two physically motivated popular choices for f(R) are considered:…
We start by studying a small set of objects characterized by photometric profiles that have been pointed out to deviate significantly from the standard R^{1/4} law. For these objects we confirm that a generic R^{1/n} law, with n a free…
The classification of galaxy morphologies is an important step in the investigation of theories of hierarchical structure formation. While human expert visual classification remains quite effective and accurate, it cannot keep up with the…
A signature of the dark energy equation of state may be observed in the shape of voids. We estimate the constraints on cosmological parameters that would be determined from the ellipticity distribution of voids from future spectroscopic…