Related papers: How well can we determine cluster mass profiles fr…
We investigate the strong lensing properties of the Sersic profile as an alternative to the NFW profile, focusing on applications to lens modelling of clusters. Given an underlying Sersic dark matter profile, we study whether an NFW profile…
Clusters of galaxies are powerful cosmological probes, particularly if their masses can be determined. One possibility for mass determination is to study the cosmic microwave background (CMB) on small angular scales and observe deviations…
The increasingly large numbers of multiple images in cluster-scale gravitational lenses have allowed for tighter constraints on the mass distributions of these systems. Most lens models have progressed alongside this increase in image…
Due to observational constraints, dark matter determinations in nearby clusters based on weak lensing are still extremely rare, in spite of their importance for the determination of cluster properties independent of other methods. We…
Gravitational lensing by clusters of galaxies has been detected on scales ranging from $\sim10^{-1}$ Mpc to $\sim10$ Mpc, namely, arcs/arclets, weak lensing and quasar-cluster associations. This allows us to derive an overall radius matter…
We aim at a direct measurement of the compactness of three galaxy-scale lenses in massive clusters, testing the accuracy of the scaling laws that describe the members in strong lensing (SL) models of galaxy clusters. We selected the…
Large area surveys have detected significant samples of galaxy clusters that can be used to constrain cosmological parameters, provided that the masses of the clusters are measured robustly. To improve the calibration of cluster masses…
We present a new method for estimating galaxy cluster masses using weak-lensing magnification. The effect of weak-lensing magnification introduces a correlation between the position of foreground galaxy clusters and the density of…
We propose a new technique to reconstruct non-parametrically the projected mass distribution of galaxy clusters from their gravitational lens effect on background galaxies. The beauty of our technique, is that it combines information from…
Although N-body simulations of cosmic structure formation suggest that dark matter halos have density profiles shallower than isothermal at small radii and steeper at large radii, whether observed galaxy clusters follow this profile is…
We propose to use a simple observable, the fractional area of "hot spots" in weak gravitational lensing mass maps which are detected with high significance, to determine background cosmological parameters. Because these high-convergence…
The reliability of cluster lens reconstruction techniques based on weak lensing is studied in terms of the accuracy of their reproduction of the total cluster mass as a function of distance from the cluster center. To do so, a variety of…
Weak gravitational lensing by large scale structure affects the number counts of faint galaxies through the ``magnification bias'' and thus affects the measurement of the angular two-point correlation function $\w $. At faint magnitudes the…
Gravitational lensing has long been considered as a valuable tool to determine the total mass of galaxy clusters. The shear profile as inferred from the statistics of ellipticity of background galaxies allows to probe the cluster…
We present an efficient and robust approach for extracting clusters of galaxies from weak lensing survey data and measuring their properties. We use simple, physically-motivated cluster models appropriate for such sparse, noisy data, and…
We have detected the weak lensing signal induced by the cluster of galaxies MS 2053-04 (z=0.58) from a two-colour mosaic of 6 HST WFPC2 images. The best fit singular isothermal sphere model to the observed tangential distortion yields an…
Weak gravitational lensing is considered to be one of the most powerful tools to study the mass and the mass distribution of galaxy clusters. However, weak lensing mass reconstructions are plagued by the so-called mass-sheet degeneracy--the…
We present the first scaling relation between weak-lensing galaxy cluster mass, $M_{WL}$, and near-infrared luminosity, $L_K$. Our results are based on 17 clusters observed with wide-field instruments on Subaru, the United Kingdom Infrared…
The Red-Sequence Cluster Survey (RCS) is a 100 square degree galaxy cluster survey designed to provide a large sample of optically selected clusters of galaxies with redshifts 0.1<z<1.4. The survey data are also useful for a variety of…
Weak lensing surveys are expected to provide direct measurements of the statistics of the projected dark matter distribution. Most analytical studies of weak lensing statistics have been limited to quasilinear scales as they relied on…