Related papers: Pixelation Effects in Weak Lensing
Weak gravitational lensing surveys are rapidly becoming important tools to probe directly the mass density fluctuations in the universe and its background dynamics. Earlier studies have shown that it is possible to model the statistics of…
A wide field space-based imaging telescope is necessary to fully exploit the technique of observing dark matter via weak gravitational lensing. This first paper in a three part series outlines the survey strategies and relevant instrumental…
Weak gravitational lensing observations probe the spectrum and evolution of density fluctuations and the cosmological parameters which govern them. The non-linear evolution of large scale structure produces a non-Gaussian signal which is…
Weak gravitational lensing (WL) is a key cosmological probe that requires precise measurement of galaxy images to infer shape distortions, or shear, and constrain cosmology. Accurate estimation of the Point Spread Function (PSF) is crucial…
We develop and test a method for measuring the gravitational lensing induced distortion of faint background galaxies. We first describe how we locate the galaxies and measure a 2-component `polarisation' or ellipticity statistic $e_\alpha$…
Weak shear maps of the outer regions of clusters have been successfully used to map the distribution of mass at large radii from the cluster center. The typical smoothing lengths employed thus far preclude the systematic study of the…
We investigate biases induced by the conversion between the observed image shape to shear distortion in current weak lensing analysis methods. Such overall calibration biases cannot be detected by the standard tests such as E/B…
Gravitational lensing can provide pure geometric tests of the structure of space-time, for instance by determining empirically the angular diameter distance-redshift relation. This geometric test has been demonstrated several times using…
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…
We have developed a new technique called Direct Shear Mapping (DSM) to measure gravitational lensing shear directly from observations of a single background source. The technique assumes the velocity map of an un-lensed, stably-rotating…
Filled arrays of bolometers are currently being employed for use in astronomy from the far-infrared through millimeter parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. Because of the large range of wavelengths for which such detectors are applicable,…
Weak lensing by large-scale structure is a powerful technique to probe the dark components of the universe. To understand the measurement process of weak lensing and the associated systematic effects, image simulations are becoming…
Metacalibration is a new technique for measuring weak gravitational lensing shear that is unbiased for isolated galaxy images. In this work we test metacalibration with overlapping, or ``blended'' galaxy images. Using standard…
We describe a new method to search for gravitational microlensing toward the Galactic bulge that employs a small camera rather than a conventional telescope and probes new regions of parameter space. The small aperture (~65 mm) permits…
In this paper we present results from the weak lensing shape measurement GRavitational lEnsing Accuracy Testing 2010 (GREAT10) Galaxy Challenge. This marks an order of magnitude step change in the level of scrutiny employed in weak lensing…
Luminous tracers have been used extensively to map the large-scale matter distribution in the Universe. Similarly the dynamics of stars or galaxies can be used to estimate masses of galaxies and clusters of galaxies. However, assumptions…
Weak gravitational lensing seeks to determine shear by measuring induced quadrupole (elliptical) shapes in background galaxy images. Small impact parameter (a few kpc) gravitational lensing by foreground core masses between 2 10^{9} and 2…
Weak lensing provides a direct way of mapping the density distribution in the universe. To reconstruct the density field from the shear catalog, an important step is to build the shear field from the shear catalog, which can be quite…
Using mock observations of numerical simulations, we investigate the completeness and efficiency of searches for galaxy clusters in weak lensing surveys. While it is possible to search for high mass objects directly as density enhancements…
The coherent image distortions induced by weak gravitational lensing can be used to measure the power spectrum of density inhomogeneities in the universe. We present our on-going effort to detect this effect with the FIRST radio survey,…